SINCE 1870, PORTHCURNO has been an important location in the history of international telecommunications. It was in 1870 that the first international telegraph cable was laid from the beach at Porthcurno and a cable station was opened there by the Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company. ‘PK’ as it became known, was also the station where ‘probationers’ were sent to learn telegraphy skills in readiness for posting to stations overseas.
In 1915 the training role of the station became more formal and 12 out of 30 recruits taken on at Electra House in London were sent to PK for training. In 1950 an Engineering College was opened there.
Staff and Probationers on the cliffs at Porthcurno around 1876.
A Description of Porthcurno from the letters of John Pender’s second wife, Emma (23 March 1877)."There is a telegraph station near to the Land’s End, put down in a secluded bay, and no doubt tryingly lonelyÉ The Company have furnished it with a billiard table, library etc. and now it is a kind of school for preparing young men for the telegraph positions abroad"
Mess tokens such as these were used at Porthcurno until the 1920’s.
