A Brief History of Herring: It’s Importance, Influences and How it Shaped our Town

By Emma Greenard, Events Coordinator

When most people think about autumn, they think of changing colours of the leaves, pumpkins and sweet foods and trick or treating (though maybe not this year…)

But we think of autumn in a very different light- we are talking fish. More importantly the beautiful silvery herring. This single fish helped Yarmouth’s prosperity in a huge way and made it one of the most important fishing ports in Britain for hundreds of years.

So, we start around 1000AD a small sandbank formed out of the sea this was become the land in which become Great Yarmouth. It provided the ideal place for fishermen to dry their nets and as the sandbank became larger more fishermen took up permanent residence here. One of the earliest records of herring fishing at Yarmouth is in the Domesday Book, 1085.

Yarmouth was a settlement in Domesday Book, in the hundred of East Flegg, mentioned in the chapters for Norfolk and Suffolk.
It had a recorded population of 92.5 households in 1086, putting it in the largest 20% of settlements recorded in Domesday (NB: 92.5 households is an estimate, since multiple places are mentioned in the same entry), and is listed under 3 owners in Domesday Book. Image from Open Domesday https://opendomesday.org/place/TG5207/yarmouth/

Annual shoals of herring moved south along Britain’s East Coast. By autumn they were to be found in large numbers in the Southern North Sea off East Anglia. This seasonal harvest gradually attracted more fishermen and merchants from other parts of the county and the continent. Yarmouth developed then went on to develop as a true settlement to cater for this growing industry.

By the mid 13^thcentury herring had become one the favourite foods in England. It was enjoyed by everyone from Kings to the peasantry. By 1330 Great Yarmouth had become the fifth wealthiest town in England due to largely to the increasingly prosperous herring trade.

Following the English naval victory against the French at the Battle of Sluys in 1340 the town Coat of Arms was combined with the Royal Arms of Edward III. This was the first major battle of the Hundred Years War and heralded the beginning of Edward III’s successful military career. Great Yarmouth’s ships accounted for more than half of the fleet at this famous battle. Image from https://www.heraldry-wiki.com/heraldrywiki/wiki/Jaja.

Over the next two hundred years the size of the herring catches grew and therefore so did the fleet of fishing boats. However, the English fishery was not as developed as the Dutch. Since the 13^th century they been fishing sneakily in British waters with at one point over 1,600 boats being found off the coast of East Anglia. They were also known to have a much superior curing method making it a much more tasty and valuable trade item on the continent in the end this was slowly adapted by the British and the Scottish fishermen.

Each year the 21^st September was locally known as ‘Dutch Sunday’ celebrating the rituals of the preparation for the fishing season. The Dutch fished the North Sea off Yarmouth until St. Catherine’s day (25^th November).

This 1821 painting by George Vincent captures the essence of the Great Yarmouth Dutch Fair in the early 19th century. The Dutch transformed Yarmouth’s fishing industry. The town became famous for its’ “silver darlings”, herring fish cured in a manner developed by the Dutch fishermen.

By 1830’s with the Dutch fishing fleets gradually declined making way for the Scottish fleets and workers to make their mark. In 1907 it was estimated that visiting Scots workers, including fishermen, coopers, fishergirls and curers, swelled the population by 10,000 each autumn.  They introduced many different changes to the industry; one of the most important being the new market for pickled herring which was first introduced at Yarmouth. The export of brine cured herrings, particularly to Germany and Russia, eventually overtook the traditional smoked red herring trade.

From the mid-19^th century the development of free trade, independent ownership of fishing boats and the development of the railways led to the rapid expansion in the herring trade. Between 1900-1913 herring industry was at its peak!

View of a drifter coming into port circa 1900

Unloading and filling crans on the South Quay.

A large group of fishergirls on South Quay, 1912

Unissued / unused material. Herring harvest in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. A VIDEO FROM BRITISH PATHÉ.

The most successful year was 1913. In this year alone twelve million tonnes of herring were landed and sold. 227 Yarmouth registered drifters and 742 Scottish boats landed 824,213 crans* of herring. With 854 million herring worth nearly £1 million being landed at Yarmouth within 3 months and another 436 million being landed in Lowestoft. Approximately 90% of this catch went on to be exported to Germany and Russia.

A drifter stranded on Great Yarmouth beach during WWI

During both World Wars many local fishing vessels were requisitioned by the Royal Navy for military service. Fishermen found themselves in the front of defence against the enemy. They were employed in many different roles including mine sweeping, balloon barrage, harbour service, hospital ships, torpedo recovery vessels, flare drifters and anti-submarine.

War severely restricted the herring fishery and had a drastic effect on the local economy. The aftermath of the World War I led to the virtual collapse of the Russian and German export markets on which the town was so dependent.

Armed Trawler, 1941

With the onset of the World War II fishing was once again brought to a standstill. Drifters and trawlers were employed again as minesweepers to keep the east coast convoy routes clear for merchant shipping. Sixteen local vessels were lost in action as well as lot of local fishing vessels were also employed in the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo in 1940.

By the 1960s the Scottish boats began to dwindle. With the discovery of the offshore oil and gas fields and the huge tourism boom compensated for the herring industry.

If you would like to know a bit more about the fishing industry of Great Yarmouth and the people that used to work in this industry, we recommend the following blogs:

Life at Sea: Interview with Frank Howe

Kids and Collections- Fisher Girls: Great Yarmouth Silver Darlings

Batchelder, Stephen John; A Slack Day at the Quay; Great Yarmouth Museums; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/a-slack-day-at-the-quay-1951