The harbour area has always been the hub of the town and it is from here that a lot of Watchet’s early prosperity was based. Small locally owned vessels traded coastally and to Ireland with a host of commodities that can be seen in the cargo manifests still held in the Market House Museum. In the 19th century iron ore was exported from the mines in the Brendon Hills to the smelters at Ebbw Vale in South Wales. Latterly wood pulp was imported from Scandinavia and Portugal for the local paper mill and general cargo passing through the harbour included sand, cement, fertilizer, lead ingots, tractors, potatoes and coal.