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 It is not possible to say when the export of fish became an industry in Cornwall but certainly there are records of shipments of fish, principally pilchards and hake, as early as the sixteenth century. In early records the greatest mention is made of pilchards which were exported in large numbers, having first been salted and either pressed or pickled. Today one business in Newlyn, British Cured Pilchards Ltd, are the sole producers and exporters of traditional Cornish salt pilchards, in earlier times this was a considerable industry. The volume of fish processed can be judged by the quantity of salt used. 1800 bushels of French salt was imported to Newlyn in 1764 and a further 800 bushels to the neighbouring village of Mousehole. Large fish such as cod, hake and ling were often dried, smoked or salted and I have seen photographs of skate and ray hanging to dry outside of cottages. In past ages when refrigeration was not an alternative and slow means of transport precluded the shipment of fresh fish inland or abroad such cured fish would have been a delicacy. Growing up in Mousehole in the 1940s we often had salt cod, served with a white sauce known as 'dippy' for dinner on Fridays. This fish, hard and grey when purchased, had to be soaked overnight before cooking to make it palatable. Looking back I wonder why we had salt fish so often when you would expect fresh fish to be readily available. Almost everyone in Newlyn and Mousehole at that time regularly ate salt cod, it was as much part of our lives as pasties and saffron cake.
The coming of the railways would have made the transport of fresh fish viable and perhaps at around this time the export of shellfish may have started. I can find no early references. Travelling daily on the bus to school in Penzance over 50 years ago I can remember seeing the wooden lids of containers in Newlyn harbour which I recognised as being holding tanks for shellfish. I now know that these were owned by W. Harvey and Sons - a family business now in its third generation. I do not know what quantity of crabs, lobsters and crayfish were held in these tanks, if I thought about it at all I probably visualised someone rowing out to get a few crabs when needed! Nothing could be further from the truth today.
 On a visit in the mid 1990s to the storage tanks adjacent to the South Pier in Newlyn, part of the business owned by the Harvey family, I found a sophisticated operation in which some 50 tons of shellfish were exported weekly, and at any one time some 10 to 20 tons held in the storage tanks. The business has its own boats operating out of Newlyn, as well as buying in shellfish. They have their own refrigerated lorries and a processing plant adjacent to their shop opposite St. Peter's Church in the Coombe. Here, under strictly controlled hygienic conditions, shellfish is cooked. This includes the preparation of pasteurised crabs for export to Sweden. The crabs are cooked and vacuum packed in their shells under stringent conditions and will be found for sale in supermarkets in Sweden. This sounds a wonderful idea but I was told that there would not be a ready market for crabs packed in this way in England, in fact sales of shellfish are not high here and most of their shellfish is exported. Fish is sent alive to France and Spain in tanker lorries containing salt water, the temperature of which is strictly controlled. Such tankers can take up to 15 tons of shellfish.
 At the South Pier the storage tanks have a constantly changing supply of water pumped from the sea, except at very low tide when it is drawn from a reserve tank. I learned a lot about such things as buying points for crab, it should feel heavy in relation to its size and have a dark, hard shell. When growing a new shell the crab does not eat for a while and will provide less meat. There was a tank containing spider crabs, not eaten here but a delicacy in Spain. The lobsters were particularly beautiful, their dark blue shells seemed to be irridescent, shot with green and other colours, all to turn scarlet when boiled. These had large and potentially dangerous claws fastened with bands in the tank. Crawfish lacked the large claws and in general were heavier than the lobsters, all their meat is contained in the tail. Some of these crustaceans had reached a great age, too large to make good eating. I felt that they should be spared and returned to the sea. I noticed a tub of winkles, I had not realised that these were still gathered and sold. As children we used to gather and cook them, a large pin was needed to remove the scale at the top and to unwind the winkle.
Pilchard! a thousand times as good as herring!
Pilchard! the idol of a Popish nation!
Hail! little instrument of vast salvation!
Pilchard! I ween a most soul-saving fish
On which the Catholics in Lent are crammed,
Who had they not, poor souls, this lively fish
Would flesh eat, and be consequently damned.
Pilchard! whose bodies yield the fragrant oil
That makes the London lamps at midnight smile.
Peter Pindar (the English satarist John Wolcot 1738 - 1819)
Here's a health to the Pope,
And may he repent,
And lengthen by six months
The term of his Lent.
Its always declared
Betwixt the two poles,
There's nothing like pilchards
For saving of souls.
Traditional toast in Cornish fishing villages
British Cured Pilchards Ltd (Est.1905) are now the sole producers of pressed pilchards in Britain. Operating from Newlyn and exporting a product little changed over 400 years, the Pilchard Works are also open to the public as a museum. Exports of salted pilchards from Cornwall are clearly recorded in 1555 and the industry was well established by the mid 1700s with exports to Italy, France and Spain. By 1900, though many thousands of tons per year were being processed, the catches were decreasing. However, in 1905 Enrico Borzone arrived in Cornwall from Genoa to buy pressed salt pilchards; his family still buys from the Newlyn factory, the fish being packed in the same wooden casks and boxes with stencilled trade marks as were used back in 1905.
One traditional method of curing was to layer the pilchards with salt on cobbles in the open air; these 'pilchard palaces' were often in the courtyards that are now only seen as tea shops or craft workshops. The sight and smell of tons of pilchards curing in salt after a good catch, with blood and brine oozing out, probably gave rise to the Cornish expression 'God bless the Pope; Death to our friends (the pilchards), and may the blood run in the streets'.
 The concrete tanks for storing the fish that are on the ground floor of the Newlyn factory hold between 16 and 21 tons each;they are approximately 8ft square and 9ft deep. This method of salting was first used in the early 1890s and was introduced to save labour in stacking. They were still used until 1993 when all but three were demolished and replaced with numbered, plastic bins holding half a ton of fish each. This was again to save labour but also to introduce full traceability of each cask or box produced back to its date and time of salting. The remaining three traditional tanks have been kept as a reminder of the old system.
The screw presses on the first floor are another innovation that was introduced into the industry at the turn of the century to reduce labour costs and speed up the pressing. Previous methods had used poles fixed by one end into a wall with stones as weights at the other end. This gently pressed the salt pilchards, these having been placed in casks beneath the middle of the pole which acted as a simple lever multiplying the stone weights three or four times over. Pressing could take over a week and by-laws were introduced in the 18th century that required every hogshead to be branded so that producers of short pressing could be identified.
Today the fish are taken out of the brine between June and October, washed and sent up to the packers on the first floor. Each fish has to be caefully placed in its cask or 'coffin', this last a former for the boxes, with its head facing the same way and overlapping its neighbour. The fish will be broken if this is not done and with over a million fish each year it takes dextrous hands to complete the operation so female packers are preferred. Pressing can take up to ten hours if the fish are particularly delicate and the pressman has to judge carefully how many turns he can make at a time without damaging the fish. After pressing, the block of fish is taken out of the coffin and placed in its wooden box with a piece of hessian at the bottom to soak up any excess oil. It now has a shelf life of over a year when kept in a chiller.
Some recipes
Marinated pilchards
fresh pilchards
mixed pickling spices
bayleaves
malt vinegar
salt and pepper
Descale and clean the pilchards, remove the heads and tails. Season well with pepper and salt. Place a layer of the fish in an eathenware or baking dish, sprinkle with pickling spice and bay leaves. Repeat the layers until the dish is full, then add the liquid- three parts vinegar to one part water - to the top of the dish. Tie down with brown paper, or use a close fitting lid (not foil) . Bring to the boil on top of the stove, then bake in a moderate to slow oven until the bones are quite soft. Marinated pilchards are excellent served cold, perhaps with salad and fresh granary bread.
Scrowlers
Descale and clean the pilchards and split open. Season well. Grease the hot plate or griddle, cook the fish quickly, one side and then the other. Years ago these were often cooked over an open fire, indoors. The smell was unbearable. Excellent barbecue food though!
Orange and salt pilchard salad
large oranges
salt pilchard fillets. thinly sliced or chopped
olive oil
chopped fresh parsley & basil
freshly squeezed lemon juice
black olives
salad leaves
Slice oranges into wedges, removing pith. In a bowl mix the salted pilchards, oranges, olive oil, herbs, lemon juice and black pepper to taste. Place in the fridge for at least one hour to allow the flavours to merge. Serve on a bed of salad leaves and garnish with the black olives.
Margaret Perry
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