Pilchard Fishing

Through the sixteenth to nineteenth century pilchards were a valuable product. As a food they were cured and exported over large distances. Their oil could be used for lighting and heating. Pilchards were caught by one of two methods, drift netting or seine netting.

The life cycle of the pilchard required them to come close to the shore in late summer. This they did in massive shoals numbering in their millions.However the appearance of the shoals were not consistent, their time and location varied. To make sure that the shoals were not missed, lookouts were located at good viewing points. Here a huers hut would be built.

These huts were manned by huers, who on sighting the pilchard shoals would signal by crying 'hevva' through a trumpet. The boats would then be guided by the huers through semaphore to the shoal, and provide instruction as to where to throw the net to entrap it.

Image reproduced by kind permission of Penlee House Gallery and Museum.

Stone Weight Used For Pressing

Each fishing village had many cellars where the pilchards were processed. The pilchards were placed in stone tanks, salted and pressed. The oil escaped through a drain hole and was collected.

The oil was an important by-product and could even be used as lighting oil. The lamps that burnt pilchard oil were known as chill lamps.

Image reproduced by kind permission of Penlee House Gallery and Museum.

Chill Lamps

Each exporter branded their product by the use of a stencil on the pilchard cask, of which three examples are shown below.

 
Image reproduced by kind permission of Penlee House Gallery and Museum.

Pichard Cask Stencils

Seine Fishing

When a pilchard shoal neared the shore, huge nets of a 400 yards in length would be thrown around them. The nets gradually pulled into a circle, surrounding and trapping the shoal. The nets were kept upright by floats at the surface and weights at the bottom, presenting an impenetrable wall to the pilchards.

The pilchards were then removed by smaller tuck nets and loaded into small boats and carried ashore. The seine net provided a convenient keep net in which the fish could be kept alive and fresh until they were processed.

Seine fishing was a capital intensive industry. There was the requirement for large nets, shipping, processing and labour costs. Local fisherman could not afford such an enterprise, instead the industry came under the control of local entrepreneurs. The fishermen received only a fixed wage.

The pilchard shoals severely declined and the industry followed, finally ceasing at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Drift Fishing

Large nets were allowed to drift, the fish were caught when their gills got trapped in the net mesh.

The fishermen on the drift netters were paid on a share basis. However as business men ran the seine industry the law was also on its side. Their were legal restrictions placed on the drift netters preventing them from scattering the shoals before they could reach the shore, so reducing the opportunites for large catches.