Community
Port Eynon is found at the end of a steep, narrow, bendy country lane that in some places is not wide enough to allow two cars to pass each other. Special care must be taken for the sharp bends, pedestrians and oncoming traffic, including the local bus service.
The shops in the village largely cater for the holiday makers who visit throughout the year, however the small population of villagers (less than 200 people) at one time used the old post office/shop which changed from Brooke House Stores to CK's Foodstore, for their daily needs. However, recently CK's closed.
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SHOCKED BY SHOP NEWS
The village of Port Eynon has been shocked by the news that our village shop, already divested of its post office facilities, is to close. It was bought last year by CK Stores, who appeared to have made a success of it during the busy tourist season but are said to be looking to convert the building into holiday accommodation.
This leaves the villagers, many of whom are extremely elderly and some of whom do not drive, with no alternative but to find their way to the nearest shop, 1.5 miles away at Scurlage, along an unpavemented and unlit country road. Buses run only a few times a day and not at all in the evening.
Port Eynon's tourist trade is already suffering from the beach having been almost scoured of sand and now there will be no shop for visitors and villagers alike.
The village of Port Eynon has been shocked by the news that our village shop, already divested of its post office facilities, is to close. It was bought last year by CK Stores, who appeared to have made a success of it during the busy tourist season but are said to be looking to convert the building into holiday accommodation.
This leaves the villagers, many of whom are extremely elderly and some of whom do not drive, with no alternative but to find their way to the nearest shop, 1.5 miles away at Scurlage, along an unpavemented and unlit country road. Buses run only a few times a day and not at all in the evening.
Port Eynon's tourist trade is already suffering from the beach having been almost scoured of sand and now there will be no shop for visitors and villagers alike.
Therefore it seems likely that the locals will need to travel to shop in Swansea or the villages of Scurlage and Knelston for the foreseeable future.
The postbox set into the wall of the shop has the initials GR (meaning Georgius Rex - Latin for King George). This dates the postbox between 1910 and 1936.
The residential housing in Port Eynon adds to the picturesque quality of the village. Whitewashed cottages and detached houses dot the landscape together with well kept cottage gardens. The tradition of whitewashing buildings developed as a cheap method of painting stone walls. Gower has a long history of quarrying the local resource of limestone from the peninsula, and the limestone was converted to 'quick lime' by heating the stone in lime kilns. The resulting quick lime was then used to make whitewash and mortar for buildings. In the past, a trade of shipping limestone over to Devon and Cornwall from Port Eynon developed in order to increase the fertility of the acid soil found in these parts.
The residents of Port Eynon are mostly retired with a small number of younger families. In comparison to Swansea the area does not have many children and does not have its own school. Port Eynon is in the catchment area of Knelston Primary School, so younger children of the village need to travel nearly three miles to get to school. The closest comprehensive school is Bishopston which is ten miles away.
Social and community life is catered for by the church and village hall and resident notices are posted on the village notice board, opposite CK's.
The village also has two public houses, The Ship Inn and the Smugglers Haunt.
