The Jolly Sailor has stood on Church Street in Newton, on the edge of Porthcawl, since 1818, when it became the village's first licensed premises. It was run as a combined inn, grocers and blacksmith by Frances Turpin, and its early history is tied to the smuggling trade of the Turpin family: sea captain John Turpin sailed a sloop carrying contraband from France, Portugal and Spain, landing goods on the offshore Tusker Rock before they were said to be carried through a tunnel from the shoreline Red House up to the pub. The building faces the green and the 12th-century St John the Baptist church. It operates today as a free house with two traditional bars, old photographs and information on its smuggling past on the walls, and is listed in the CAMRA Vale of Glamorgan & Bridgend pub guide. Real ale is served alongside a standard pub food and drinks range.
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