Peter’s Blowin

‘Peter’s blowin’ was the word that went round Newlyn when the foghorn sounded on the South Pier. Peter Hosking was the sailmaker who lived at Green Rocks. The foghorn would be blown every minute when Peter could no longer see the promenade through the fog.
Peter Kneebone Hosking (1873-1957) was born at St Peter’s Hill, Newlyn Town on the seventh of February 1873. Peter attended the Wesleyan School near Champion’s Slip. He commenced a seven year indentured apprenticeship at a local sailmakers on the 18th of January 1886 one month before his 14th birthday. The firm was owned by Robert Daniel Trevorrow based at the Tolcarne. Peter was one of the last sail-makers to work at Newlyn. Like his sail-making forebears, he kept a ledger with a marbled front in which he kept a record of all the sails he made. As well as operating the foghorn at the South Pier lighthouse, he ran a County Council supported class for young fishermen in a room behind the Fishermen’s Arms teaching ropework, splicing and net making etc.
The reed holder of the foghorn was presented to Peter’s daughter Enid Richards, Glyn Richard’s mother and by Glyn to the Archive.