Post 8

Fishing and boat building
Norfolk & Harris

September/October 2013

Crab boat, David Hewitt's yard, Stiffkey, Norfolk

I've been looking at a variety of fishing and boat building methods in my travels around Norfolk, and more recently on the Isle of Harris. I love the sounds and smells of boatyards, whether they are designed for wood or GRP constructions - the latter are rather like garages and the former remind me of my schoolboy attempts to turn a wobbly table leg.

Fishing methods here range from the ancient to the ultra- modern - gill netting on the north Norfolk coast to computerised salmon farming off Scalpaigh. Older links between my two locations are made by herring fleets plying between the Hebrides and Great Yarmouth - unimaginably hard work for the women and men who slaved at this historical and traditional occupation.

I hope you enjoy these pictures. I apologise in advance for any errors in names of people or places - please feel free to email me with corrections, or with responses to the pictures. 

Post 9 will be along very shortly, featuring more life and landscapes from my October visit to the Isles of Harris and Lewis. 

Click on any picture to see larger versions on your screen.

Dawn, Brancaster, Norfolk - Harry gathering sea bass from the gill net

Ivor Mackinnon monitoring fish pens, Marine Harvest salmon farm, Cuddy Point, Scalpay

Glaven Valley, north Norfolk

David Hewitt's workshop, Stiffkey, Norfolk

Mussel farm, Loch Eireasort, Lewis

Cleaning and sorting mussels, Brancaster, Norfolk

Harry and Ned fixing their gill net across the beach - dusk, Brancaster, Norfolk. 

Neil Thompson Boats, Glandford, Norfolk

Wells-next-the-sea, Norfolk

Marine Harvest depot, Cuddy Point, Scalpay

The gill net is laid across the beach - dusk, Brancaster

David Hewitt's yard, Stiffkey, Norfolk

Brillo drives me out to the floating barge, Cuddy Point

Dawn, Wells harbour, Norfolk

Neil Thompson's yard, Glandford, north Norfolk

Extracting the net from the gills. Dawn, Brancaster

Neil Thompson Boats, Glandford, Norfolk

Living quarters, Marine Harvest barge, Cuddy Point

Oysters, Norfolk coast

Liverpool Class twin screw lifeboats C1951. David Hewitt's yard, Stiffkey

GRP mould making - Neil Thompson Boats

Gill net catch - dawn, Brancaster, Norfolk

Tom Gathercole and David Hewitt, Stiffkey, Norfolk

Neil Thompson Boats, Glandford

Wood store, David's workshop

Brancaster Staithe, Norfolk

Boat owner's keys