You've made it to The Port Royal by way of Colleton Hill, Weirfield Road or through Trews Weir Reach. Get your pint in before checking out Trews Weir, the old mill and suspension bridge. The pub was born in the mid 19th century, incorporating an old quayside warehouse and a row of canal worker's cottages. The place was once the HQ of the Exeter Rowing Club until they moved over the river. The boat-house now makes up the restaurant but the pub was briefly once known as the Boat House Inn.
More pub history in the bygone and old pubs section. See sidebar menu to the right.

Jamaica?

Port Royal was once the major commercial town of Jamaica and was notorious for piracy, whoring and drinking.

Port royal gained a wicked reputation during the C17th as both the richest and wickedest city in the world, notorious for displays of loose morals and vast wealth. Pirates were encouraged to frequent the City by the British who paid them to attack French and Spanish shipping.

The 7th June 1692 saw the City virtually destroyed, sinking 25 ft into the Carribean. The City was built on a sand spit and an earthquake liquefied the sand causing the city to collapse and the sea to overun the City.

A similar fate hit the biblical towns of Soddom and Gomora a few thousand years earlier. Soddom and Gomora were also dens of iniquity and great places to be on a Saturday night. Their location is unknown but it is very likely they were once on the shores of the Red or Dead Sea.

Never go drinking and whoring on a sand bar in an earthquake zone. You have been warned.

Pirates were welcomed to the City because the English lacked the manpower to effectively defend the City. By the 1660's most of the City's resident were pirates, cut-throats and prostitutes, Charles Lesley wrote,

"Wine and women drained their wealth to such a degree that some of them (the pirates) were reduced to beggary. They have been known to spend 2 or 3,000 pieces of eight in one night; and one gave a strumpet 500 to see her naked. They used to buy a pipe of wine, place it in the street and oblige everyone that passed to drink."

Following Henry Morgan's appointment as govenor, Jamaica passed anti-piracy laws and instead of being a safe haven for pirates, pirates were executed in Jamaica.

Pub Wall Plaque

The town of Port Royal is featured in the Pirates of the Carribean films and there is also a honduran beer named, "Port Royal". Sup up before heading outside to take a look at Trews Weir, the suspension bridge and old mill.

Dear Lord,

Seeing as you got rid of Soddom, Gomorra and Port Royal, Please let me be Capt. Sparrow in "Pirates of the Carribean".

I promise never to get pished again, and never to purposely embarass the wife in front of her friends.

I also promise never to leave the Mother in law in the middle of Dartmoor again and will stop drinking scotch and snorting cocaine while driving.

I wanna be in the bit where Kierra gets 'em oot.

AMEN.

Barges docked at St Leonards Quay carrying limestone from Babbacombe Quarry and coal from South Wales. The lime kilns these barges served are now within the grounds of Larkbeare House (the limestone wall up river from the pub, hides the latest version of Larkbeare House). They were in operation for about 140 years. The Quay at this point will have been dotted with stores and warehouses, the Port Royal Inn actually incorporates some of the old timber from an earlier quay warehouse on this site.

Just past the stores are the two five storey warehouses built by Exeter builders Hoopers and R.S. Cornish, for which the Quayside is most famed. On the ground floor of the first is On The Waterfront, your next drinks stop.
This place is a pizza house / bar, great for stuffing your face and having a few drinks. You can sit outside on summer evenings with your beer or go inside for a pizza.There is normally a good selection of beers.

There is also an excellent view of the new suspension bridge (Cricklepit Bridge) from here. This is your route over to the other side of the river unless you use Butts Ferry. The bridge was designed by David Hubbard and opened on 29th June 1988. The ferry service dates back to 1641. The lamps on either side of the ferry are two of the original six that used to stand on the old Exe Bridge of 1905 and dismantled in 1973.

On the Shooting Marsh Stile side of the river is the Canal Basin which once housed the Maritime Museum (now closed). There are still a few boats hanging around and its worth a look.

The Quay took on its present look in 1564 around the same time that John Trew was building the first Exeter Canal. Boats used to moor up to 3 deep. The Weirs that can be seen on the Exe were built in order to raise the level of the river at Exeter thus allowing a good depth of water into the Canal. The head of the Canal is to the south of the Canal Basin over the river (take Butts ferry or walk over the suspension bridge). The canal is five miles long, 90 ft wide and 10 feet deep, large enough to carry 150 ton vessels and outlets at Turf locks on the Exe Estuary. Traffic along the canal was heavy until the mid 19th century after which time trade decreased and large debts for upkeep were amassed.

On top of the cliff and slightly down stream of the Quay you'' ll also observe the the Georgian Houses of Colleton Crescent. These houses will have belonged to wealthy merchants having made their money from businesses based along the river banks. During Georgian times, Exeter was England's 6th largest city.