Fish sold for manure
This story appeared in a series of articles by Forrest Frank in 1920 in the Scarborough Daily Post - This story came from Captain Wilson
When I was a lad, the fishing boats consisted chiefly of cobles that lined and trawled inshore, and yawls that lined on the off ground for cod and went after the herring in herring time. The coblemen sold their catches themselves by Dutch auction, starting at a high price and coming down, as the bidders starting from a low one advancedd till, when in the opinion of the fisherman a fair mean was reached, he cried: "Het!" (have it), and the bargain was made. In addition to those who bought to supply the wants of the town with its growing company of fashionable visitors in the summer time, there were those with carts who attended regularly and went rounds far afield in the surrounding countryside. But a big trade was done in dried and salted fish for export. There was an old fishmonger, Cassey Boomer (Bulmer), who used to supply the mayor, and would walk along the cobles, inspect the catches, and take what he thought, saying : "Mayor Dues!" This custom was a survival, doubtless, of that which the carving on the old Town Hall at the back of the Newcastle Packet of the hand taking a fish from a fisherman's creel, typified. Fish that could not be sold used to be landed on the steer to be taken away for manure, and I have sometimes seen 20 lasts of herrings piled there to be disposed of. I remember once Henry Wyrill (Captain John Wyrill's uncle) and Billy Appleby throwing out 17 lasts between them. Always there were tubs on the steer for the collection of fish livers, which an old man gathered for Tindall's and others, for the reception of offal, and the stink was horrible.
OTHER ARTICLES
• The history of the Scarborough fishing industry
• The Allen and Truman Scarborough fishing families
• Trawling and overfishing - Filey fishing
• Children of the fishing families in Scarborough
• Watching for ships by the harbour walls in Scarborough
• Theakston's guide to the Scarborough fisheries 1866
• Filey fishermen in 1862 - yawls and cobles
• Losses amongst Filey fishing cobles
• The Harwood and Bullamore fishing family history in Scarborough
• Radio 270 - pirate radio station off Scarborough
• Life in the Old Town of Scarborough and harbour - the fishing families
• Yorkshires last traditional sailing fishing coble
• The fishermen and fisheries of Robin Hood's Bay in 1838
• Suzanne Pollard and her Filey Fishing relatives
• The Beam trawl and the Otter trawl
• Harwood Brierleys description of Scarborough harbour at the opening of the 20th century
• Pollack,codfish,and pollack fishing in Scarborough in the 1800's
• Ray Edmonds stories of the Old Town in Scarborough
• Filey and the gales of 1860,1867,1869 AND 1880
HOW TO HELP THIS WEBSITE: Google rates pages posted on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites very highly. So if you have found this site useful please post it using the buttons below.
Tweet