The New Look Revolution

It's not just about the railway. There were other things going on at the time we have chosen to set Porthkeres in 1947 and one of them was Dior's famous "New Look".

You don't need a diploma in vintage fashion to know that in 1947 Christian Dior launched his "New Look", the ultra-feminine antidote to wartime austerity, which revolutionised the way women dressed. In defiance of cloth rationing (which was still in effect in Britain until 1951) ladies adopted mid-calf length, full skirts. Slim pencil skirts were also popular. The waist was nipped in for an exaggerated hourglass figure. Reacting against the masculine, square-shouldered styles of the war years, the fashionable silhouette gained slightly sloping shoulders; dolman, Raglan, cap and smoothly set-in sleeve styles dominated.

The New Look Revolution

The Royal Romance

One of the biggest events taking place at the time that Porthkeres is set was Princess Elizabeth's engagement to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, which was announced on 10 July 1947. Will there have been bunting and street parties in the village, we wonder?

The Royal Romance (1947)

Dawlish railway station

Dawlish railway station

The railway follows the water's edge in Porthkeres as it does here in Dawlish.



Photo By mattbuck (category) (Own work by mattbuck.) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Cornish Language and Place Names in Cornwall

The name Porthkeres is Cornish for Cherry Port and the next town up the line, St. Elys, Cornish for Saint Elizabeth. Here's where we researched for the naming of those places.

• Cornish Language and Place Names in Cornwall
• The Cornish Language
• Cornish language

Introduction to smuggling in southwest England

Polperro, on the south coast of Cornwall, an active fishing and smuggling port since the 12th century

Cave in Polperro by Paul Higgins [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Smugglers Cottage, Talland Bay Photo © Derek Harper (cc-by-sa/2.0)

There must be evidence of smuggling in Porthkeres, surely?

• Introduction to smuggling in southwest England
• Smugglers and Wreckers
• Smugglers in Cornwall