1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Newlyn

NEWLYN, a village in the St Ives parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, on the shore of Mount’s Bay, 1 m. S.W. of Penzance. It is a small fishing port, with narrow paved lanes and old-fashioned cottages. Near the parish church of St Peter stands an ancient cross of granite, discovered in a field close by. The harbour, one of the safest for small craft in the west country, is sheltered by two long and massive stone piers. A more ancient pier, originally constructed in the reign of Henry VI., was renewed in that of James I. Tin mining and smelting have been largely carried on in the neighbourhood, and several galleries were worked far under the sea. The principal modern industry, however, is fishing, especially for pilchard. The picturesque appearance of the village, with its quays and little harbour, and the grandeur of the cliffs and moorland scenery towards Land’s End, make Newlyn an attractive spot. Between 1880 and 1890 an artistic coterie grew up here, the leaders of which were Edwin Harris, Walter Langley, Fred Hall, Frank Bramley, T. C. Gotch, Mr and Mrs Stanhope Forbes, Chevalier Taylor and H. S. Tuke. The earlier artists at Newlyn were said to have selected it as their centre, because a greyness in the atmosphere helped their depiction of subtleties in tone, part of their creed being subordination of colour to tone-gradation. In later times, the element of a common ideal tended to disappear, but the interest of the “Newlyn school” attracted a regular art-colony, who in various ways assimilated and expressed the picturesque influences of the place (see Painting: Recent British). There is a permanent Art Gallery, containing examples of the work of the Newlyn artists. Newlyn ward in the urban district of Paul (pop. 6332) had in 1901 a population of 3749.