Artwork created from pieces of Porthleven’s broken harbour defences has gone on view ahead of auction later this month that is expected to attract international interest.

More than 160 lots will be auctioned off in aid of the Fishermen’s Mission on Saturday, March 18.

Such has been the level of interest in the Great Baulk Auction that the venue had to be moved to a marquee on the Harbour Head, with hundreds of people expected to attend and many more bidding online under the direction of Penzance auctioneer David Lay.

Registration begins at 3pm, ahead of bidding beginning at 4pm live in the marquee and online at the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/david-lay-f-r-i-c-s/catalogue-id-srdavid10052 where lots can now be viewed.

An exhibition of all the work opens tomorrow at Porthleven’s Old Lifeboat House Gallery, from 10.30am each day until March 10. 

Work has been created by a diverse range of names, with sculptures and etchings from Helston Community College students sitting alongside pieces from famous faces such as actress Caroline Quentin and a poem from Britain’s first female poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

One piece features the signature of Prime Minister Teresa May alongside those of Cornwall’s six MPs, with the lot including lunch or dinner for two people in the Palace of Westminster and a conducted tour of The Houses of Parliament with West Cornwall’s MP Derek Thomas.

Cornish Michelin-starred chef Nathan Outlaw turns his hand to painting with an acrylic on wood depicting a fishing net while 3 Daft Monkeys frontman Tim Ashton has time out from his music to paint a skull and crossbones-inspired design.

Famous local artists such as David Hosking, Michael Praed and John Piper feature, along with Helston painter Alice Hole and Porthleven’s own Julia Schofield, sisters Ann and Dawn Sjoholm and photographer Carla Regler, whose image of the 2014 storms is etched directly onto the wood.

One of the most time-consuming and intricate lots come from Pastor Glen Chaplin of Porthleven Community Church, who has painstakingly recreated the port’s Bickford-Smith Institute in model form out of the wood.

What ties all the lots together is the fact they each incorporate, in some way, pieces of the baulks that broke when a devastating storm hit Porthleven on February 5, 2014.

The sea defences failed under the force of the waves, causing the sea to come crashing into the inner harbour, sinking boats and damaging equipment.

As a result, the Fishermen’s Mission was forced to step in to help fishermen whose livelihood had been affected both directly and indirectly by the effects of that day.