I remember many years ago talking to a resident of Margate in Kent, who told me that having moved there, there was nowhere else to go without going back. There are other places that feel like that; that they are at the end of the road.
For me Cromer was one; you can only go south from there. Porlock Weir is another; the only way is east.
As it is one of the few safe havens along the rugged Exmoor coast, Porlock Weir has long been a port. In former times, limestone and coal were imported from Wales. Exports included cargoes of bricks, flour and corn, bark for tanning, pit-props for the Welsh coal mines, and oysters to Bristol.
These days the harbour is almost exclusively used by small pleasure craft, and the massive dock-gate are used hold back tidal water, which is then released to flush the channel clear of stones.