The Real Natives
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‘Real Natives’ A Study of the History of Oyster Fishing in Chichester Harbour for the Sussex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority Dr Ian Friel MA, PhD, FSA © Ian Friel 2020 Oysters - a once-common food Poor food for friars ‘Give me then of thy gold, to make our cloister’, Quoth he, ‘for many a mussel and many an oyster ‘When other men have been full well at ease ‘Hath been our food, our cloister for to raise’ Geoffrey Chaucer, The Summoner’s Tale, c 1387-88 A Chichester bet In 1813 a man named Martin from Dell Quay Mill and another named Fogden from Donnington met at Chalkright’s fishmonger shop in South Street, Chichester, to settle a bet as to who could eat the most oysters: ‘in a short time each swallowed four hundred large ones’ until Martin called for a halt. Fogden agreed, as long as Martin paid for the oysters. They then went to the King’s Head for a glass of brandy, followed by an eel pie supper at Martin’s house. Ipswich Journal, 11 December 1813, p 1 The London Oyster Season opens: Billingsgate Fishmarket, August 1835: ‘At an early hour a scene of unusual bustle and confusion was apparent. Not less than 5,000 persons were in waiting to be served with the ‘real natives’, while the streets in the vicinity were blocked up with every species of locomotive vehicle to convey the oysters to the various quarters of the metropolis. There were no less than fifty sail of vessels in front of Billingsgate laden with oysters, chiefly from the Kentish coast. At twelve o’clock (noon) the hatches were opened and the rush to obtain the first supply was tremendous. Several persons were knocked overboard in the confusion, but, happily, with no other injury than a wet jacket…’ Kentish Gazette, Tuesday, 11 August 1835, p 4 Poverty… ‘Poverty and oysters always seem to go together’. Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836 … and the proverbial ‘Why then the world’s mine oyster, Which I with sword will open’. William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, c 1597 Cover image Oyster shells lying on the Bosham foreshore in the vicinity of the 19th century northern group of oyster ponds. 1 Contents Pages Introduction 4 Acknowledgments 4 Abbreviations 5 Notes on currency and Census information 5 Image credits 5 The Brief 6 Executive Summary 7 Glossary 11 Archaeological Evidence 12 Medieval and early modern documentary evidence 15 The late 17th and early 18th centuries – a turning-point in the Chichester Harbour oyster fisheries? 18 The geography and placenames of Chichester Harbour, late 18th century 23 c 1799-1870: an age of crises 25 1870-1939: co-operation and collapse 35 Revival: from the 1950s to the 21st Century 56 A summary of factors relating to the rise and decline of the Chichester Harbour oyster fisheries 62 Appendix 1 Data relating to Emsworth oyster stocks, catches and exports 65 Appendix 2 Data relating to Bosham oyster stocks, catches and exports 69 Appendix 3 Railway shipments of fish, 19th century 73 2 Appendix 4 Emsworth oyster fishery returns, 2006-17 74 Appendix 5 Known origins of oysters brought into the Harbour 75 Appendix 6 Traditional fishing boats and dredging 79 List of Sources Consulted 83 Bibliography 87 Endnotes 89 3 Introduction The oyster fishery in Chichester Harbour has an incredibly long history, but, with some exceptions, the documentary and archaeological evidence for it is rather patchy before the 19th century. The town of Emsworth, and Emsworth Museum, rightly celebrate the history of its oyster industry, and that history has been very thoroughly explored in works by David J Rudkin and Linda Newell (and retold in an outstanding short film, Emsworth’s Oysters, by Millstream Productions, 2014).1 The story of J D Foster and the disastrous 1902 oyster pollution incident was already well known to me, because, in a bizarre touch of ‘synchronicity’, I played the part of Foster in the 1990 Havant community play All About Us! However, much less well known to me – and I suspect to many other people – is the history of the Bosham oyster fishery. The tale of class conflict and industrial action, when the Bosham dredgermen went on strike for sixteen months between 1889 and 1891, was one of a number of real surprises in the research. Commercial fishing itself remains one of the most dangerous occupations in the UK, and just because the waters of the Harbour are relatively sheltered, even the oyster fishery was never risk-free. In 1826, for example, a father and son named Hoskins were dredging off Cobnor Point when their boat was hit by what was described as a ‘whirlwind’, and sunk. The father survived, but his ‘fine lad of 16’ did not. Just over twenty years later, in 1847, a Nutbourne fisherman named William Mash set out to dredge for oysters in the Thorney Channel one day, and failed to return home. The next day, a mast was spotted sticking out of the water in the Channel, to the south of Thorney Church. It was supposed that the boat had been carrying too much sail, capsizing in a sudden gust of wind, and that poor Mash had been trapped in the gear and gone down with the boat.2 Fish and shellfish can sometimes come at appallingly high prices for fishermen and their families. Ian Friel March 2020 Acknowledgments I would like to thank the Sussex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority and its Research Manager, Kathryn Nelson, for commissioning this study. Record offices, libraries and museums have provided key sources for the research on this project, and I would like the thank the following institutions and their staff: - West Sussex Record Office, Chichester - The Novium Museum, Chichester (particularly Amy Roberts, its Collections Officer), with especial thanks for permission to use an image in their collection - Chichester Library, and the fabulous reserve collection of West Sussex Libraries - Emsworth Museum (particularly Dr Margaret Rogers, Vice Chairman, and Philip A Magrath, Curator) - Emsworth Library - The National Archives, Kew - Portsmouth History Centre, Portsmouth - Hampshire Record Office, Winchester - East Sussex Record Office – The Keep, Falmer 4 Abbreviations BDCS Bosham Dredgermen’s Co-operative Society CFO Chief Fishery Officer EDCS Emsworth Dredgermen’s Co-operative Society ESRO East Sussex Record Office (The Keep), Falmer HRO Hampshire Record Office, Winchester LFC Local Fisheries Committee (of SSFD) OED Oxford English Dictionary (www.oed.com) PHC Portsmouth History Centre SAC Sussex Archaeological Collections SFC Sea Fisheries Committee SSFD Sussex Sea Fisheries District TNA The National Archives, Kew WSRO West Sussex Record Office, Chichester Notes on currency, Census and newspaper information Pre-decimal British currency was based on the old penny (1d), twelve of which made a shilling (1s) and twenty shillings made a pound. Prices were normally rendered in the format £/s/d. Modern equivalents of past money have been calculated using the remarkable www.measuringworth.com site. Unless otherwise stated, the equivalent is based on the ‘real price’ of items, taken from the prices of a fixed group of items of average household expenditure over time. Census data is via www.ancestry.co.uk, and newspaper material is via the British Newspaper Archive, https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Image and quotation credits Unless otherwise credited, all photographs and specially-prepared modern maps are copyright of Ian Friel 2020. Fig 12: Copyright of Sussex IFCA. Fig 14: Copyright of the Novium (a service provided by Chichester District Council). All rights reserved. Quotations from TNA sources are Crown Copyright, and courtesy of TNA. 5 The Brief from Sussex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, December 2017 The focus is on Chichester Harbour, and we know that towns such as Bosham and Emsworth used to be important in the oyster fishery. However, Chichester Harbour sits within the Solent and also had important links to the oyster beds further off the Sussex coast, as well as oyster fisheries off Essex and other areas of the UK and Europe. It would be interesting to see Chichester Harbour in the context of these other oyster areas. To help support any future oyster management work undertaken by Sussex IFCA and partner organisations, we would like to know: • Amount of oyster caught (numbers) • Number of boats and people involved • Management measures (rules, restrictions, efforts to restore beds) • Factors which caused decline in abundance • Personal stories that capture the cultural heritage and language • The nature of the fishing activity From as far back in time as possible, the last 200/300 years in particular, up to present day. 6 Executive Summary Archaeological evidence Oysters have been consumed in Britain since prehistory. They are common finds on Roman sites in the vicinity of Chichester Harbour, and it is reasonable to suppose that these came from the Harbour. Some oysters found at Fishbourne Roman Palace appear to have been cultivated, most probably in shallow beds. Medieval archaeological evidence for oyster consumption in the area is less plentiful, but this may be a reflection of the number of sites excavated. No physical signs of continuity between Roman and medieval oyster cultivation have been found, but at the very least the Fishbourne discovery points to a local oyster industry of some kind in the Roman era. Medieval and early modern documentary evidence (to c 1650) Medieval evidence for oyster fisheries in Chichester Harbour is sparse, though fisheries of some kind existed in 1086 at Bosham, Hayling Island and at a place in the vicinity of Emsworth. Oyster dredges were in use by the late 14th century by Bosham fishermen. Oysters were a very cheap food, and the link between them and poverty was made as far back as the 14th century.