Jolly SailorInn

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.