Oysters 1980

One of the activities which have brought people to the village is oyster fishery, for which Paglesham has long been noted. Until the end of the last century a large proportion of the River Roach was common ground, although various people owned private oyster ‘layings ‘ in it. Then two or more oyster fishery companies were established.

The River Roach was unique among English estuaries as a ‘spatting’ ground. This was thought to be because the ‘spat’ at the mouth of the River Crouch was sent up by the flood tide into the Roach.

Oyster Pits

The life history of the oyster is worthy of note. The oyster spawn, known as ‘spat’, is produced from the middle of June to the middle of August. It cannot at first be seen by the naked eye, but in 24-48 hours it appears like a speck of black pepper, and in about two weeks has become the size of a pin head. It clings to debris at the bottom of the river, which has previously been specially laid, and then harrowed to keep it clean. This debris, which is called ‘culch’, usually consists of old oyster shells, and much of which was dredged on the Kent coast. The ‘layings’ are at low water mark, and when the oysters are dredged up from the bed of the river, there will be a variety of sizes. Those that are ready to be sold are called ‘ware’ and immature oysters are called ‘half-ware ‘. The latter are taken to the oyster beds, which are the large pits one sees on the saltings, and kept there until they reach maturity in a further four to five years time. An oyster is six to eight years old when it is full grown. During their lifetime they need to be in continually flowing water, sometimes covered and sometimes uncovered. This is either in the flow of the tide or as the water drains over the oyster beds.

At one time the measures used were a ‘tub ‘ (just over three bushels), a ‘half-tub’ and a ‘wash’ - four washes ”going” to a tub. In early days many tubs of the half-ware were sold to Kent oystermen as they were so plentiful. Latterly they where sold by the dozen or by the wash.

The oyster industry was at its best at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one. In 1870, on the Rivers Roach and Crouch, there were 80- 100 boats and 160- 200 men engaged in the fishery. Several people can remember when 50 men came over from Burnham, walking across Wallasea Island, to work on the dredgings. The Roach River Oyster Fishery Company was established by an Act of Parliament in 1866. To quote from the Victoria County History: “the company, which has its offices at Burnham, now employs about 140 men and boys. It’s stock of half-ware and brood is about 14,000 tubs each containing from 1, 700 to 2,000 oysters. It has also fifty pits in which its stock is deposited in winter. In 1897 when all Essex oyster fisheries were especially prosperous, the company’s sales exceeded a million and a half, but ordinarily its sales averaged less than a million annually”.

Among the private oyster owners was Mr Zachary Pettitt, who in 1870 inherited his laying from his wife‘s father, George Fuller Browning, in whose family it had been for 100 years. Zachary Pettitt, apart from being one of the most notable men in Paglesham of his day, also assisted in the compilation of the Victoria County History. In 1907 he employed 22 men, one steam launch and seven sailing boats. There were also the Messrs Arthur and Fred Wiseman, whose family had long been associated with the oyster industry. At the beginning of the century the oyster beds around the river, towards Stambridge and in the Pool, would have been full of oysters, now the beds are gradually silting and have fallen into disrepair.

The oyster industry really started to drop off during the First World War, and then in 1921 there was a “death” in the oysters and nobody knew why. This caused a big reduction, although in the late 1920‘s over 100 tubs on a boat in a day can be remembered.

Keeble Shed

In 1933 the late Walter Keeble (who had run the Punch Bowl previously) and three of his sons started on their own. Walter Keeble died in 1950 and his two sons, Hubert and Alf (seen in many of the photos here), and Hubert’s son Ralph, maintained the business until the early 1970’s. Since taking over they have had five bad set-backs. In 1939-40 there was a hard winter and frost destroyed much of the spat, and, unfortunately, this happened again in winter freeze of 1947.

Oyster Pits c1963

At the end of the war, Keeble & Sons of Paglesham, Essex bought the dredger Vanguard and put her back to oyster dredging which their family had done on the rivers Roach and Crouch for fifty years on thirty-four acres of rented oyster beds.

Frozen Roach 1947

In 1953 the great East Coast floods occurred, and in “The Great Tide” - the official record of the 1953 flood - Hilda Grieve recorded “As the sea drove in towards the walls, over the flats and saltings, it swept up with its huge quantities of mud and silt, which were deposited, when the tide ebbed, on the oyster beds. Hundreds of thousands of full-grown oysters, half-ware and brood were suffocated. Of those few which survived a large proportion were left too weak to breed”. In 1958 a severe electric storm caused a large amount of mud to be washed out of the rills on to layings, so smothering the oysters. In 1963 there was another hard winter and from this the industry has never recovered and there have been no spat falls since then. Some spat is, however, being bred on the River Conway, but when transferred will not live in this river. The oysters cultivated in the 60’s and 70 have come from spat brought from the Blackwater, where the nuclear power station keeps the water warmer.

Winter Freeze 1947

To complete the Keeble story, the Keebles finished working in the 1970s, and Keeble & Son sold Vanguard to Ron Pipe, a fisherman at Burnham-on-Crouch, who used her for in-shore fishing for a while and sold her again.

A decade later, unsuccessful attempts were made to restart the industry and a washing plant (a modern requirement) was installed in one end of the boat house. About that time the Rochford District Council promoted a Pagleshain Oyster Festival. While not as impressive as the Victorian regattas, a ceremonial dredge of oysters was made and music played by a German brass band from Rochford’s ‘twin town’, Haltern.

Doug Whiting bought the Vanguard back from another owner in a sorry state. Now he has enlarged her wheel-house, given up oyster fishing and has taken up shrimping on the Roach and Crouch.

Before 1863, most of the Paglesham oysters were exported to France for reasons explained in an article by Frank Buckland, the naturalist and Her Majesty’s Inspector of Fisheries:

“The reasons why oyster- eaters in England have not hitherto availed themselves of these home- bred oysters is that their beards (that is breathing gills) are in the winter months more or less tinged with a green pigment. This peculiar green is imparted to them by the spatules of the sea-weed ‘crow-silk’ which grows abundantly in the River Roach. Dr Letheby ‘s analysis (he was the Medical Officer of Health and Food Analyst for the City of London) has pronounced this pigment to be purely vegetable, without the slightest trace of copper or other mineral. I consider that this vegetable pigment imparts a peculiar taste and agreeable flavour to the meat of these plump little oysters. For many years I have been trying to persuade the Messrs F. z J. Wiseman, Oyster Merchants, Rochford, Essex to send their ‘natives’ to the home markets. The present scar- city of oysters has now induced them to supply the English rather than the French markets. The shells are thin and porcelain like, and the proportion of meat to shell in my catalogue of oysters is one-fifth.”

Frederick Wiseman, their father, had, in fact, had a noticeable success by providing the Prime Minister with oysters. Disraeli wrote from 1 0 Downing Street on the 20th March 1 874 , “Dear Sir , Your oysters were worthy of Roman Emperors, and I have little doubt, that it was these very green-finned natives, that impelled them to invade Britain and, I fear, conquer Essex. They were delicious and, I am ashamed to add, I devoured most of them myself. Your bold. Servt. B. Disraeli”.

The “Plough and Sail” was for many years known for serving oysters. Between the two wars - in Mrs Kemp ‘s time - they were 3s 6d a dozen. During the last war they were popular with the army officers. In those days Tom Loader kept the pub and on some nights 2-300 oysters would be opened. The price of oysters in 1972 was £1.50 for a dozen locally, possibly more in London.

Alf Keeble & Doug Whiting on Board CK69 Vanguard, Oyster Smack fishing the River Roach, Paglesham, Essex.

(move mouse pointer over picture to get narrative)




Vanguard Specification
Length: 45ft
Beam: 14ft 6ins
Draft: 4ft 6ins
Displacement: 11.5 tons
Engine: Kelvin 44
Construction: Pitch pine on oak
Builder: R & J Prior, Burnham
Year Built: 1937

(source of recent location http://www.adls.org.uk, information also taken from 'A Century of Paglesham Life' with kind permission of Rosemary Roberts).