| Tolfish
On 13th January 1951 in the Kings Head, Tollesbury, an association of Tollesbury men involved in spratting and shrimping voted to form their own trading company to be known as "Tolfish Ltd".
The minutes book (in the ownership of the Haward family of West Mersea) begins about 4 months earlier on 23rd September 1950 and covers the very early days of the as yet unnamed association, the vote to affiliate with the Fisheries Organisation Society (Oct 14th 1950), and the setting up of a committee of Tollesbury men including Mr R Lewis as Chairman and Mr E 'Ted' Gager as secretary. It seems the association had been operating jointly with Harwich but on 2nd January 1951 the Tollesbury meeting voted to
seek ways and means of having its own Association.
On 13th January 1951 it was unanimously agreed to become registered as a trading company and
that company should be known as "Tolfish Ltd."
Three officers and eight committee members were proposed and seconded and finances organised;
members who wished would put down £1 each eventually to become shares.
Later, members were asked to pay £25 into the company to be regarded as shares.
The association fixed each season's prices and the start and finish of the spratting season, new markets were explored, it voted on arrangements for transport (especially with the imminent closure of Tollesbury's railway line), ice, hire of a shed for boxes and it liaised with other fishing organisations. Tolfish supplied Mr. Banks of the British Fish Canners and regular correspondence and meetings with him are recorded.
Early on, having leased a quay for landing sprats at Brightlingsea and using an office there, the Tollesbury association was keen to acquire a landing place at Woodrope and as a matter of urgency set about acquiring a landing barge at Tollesbury. The purchase of an 'invasion barge' fell through twice - one at Brightlingsea and one at Maldon had already been sold. In June 1952 a barge was bought from Gillingham and brought round the coast to Tollesbury. By the following March, Tolfish was hiring it to the Essex Rivers Board when not needed during the spratting season.
Later on the company widened their operations to include selling herring and supplying fish for fish meal.
By February 1954 the company had made a loss on the fishing account, profit being entirely due to the hire of the barge.
Tolfish's Landing Craft at Tollesbury
In the final entry on 5th November 1954 it was reported that the first radios had been fitted on two of the company's boats, the Bertram and IRIS MARY, but 'owing to difficulty in obtaining certain materials it had not been possible to install the other three sets' which gives an idea as to the number of the company's working boats. In the same entry 'Mr Gurton informed the meeting that he had inspected a skiff at Brightlingsea, 'the skiff is not quite as large as required and is in need of some repair, in view of these circumstances the secretary was authorised to make an offer of £60 for the boat'.
The last few pages list the membership; 42 from Tollesbury, 2 from Wivenhoe and 2 from Leigh on Sea. The membership list for Tollesbury includes 8 members of the Heard family, 9 members of the Lewis family and 5 members of the Leavett family.
John Leather gives more information about Tolfish Limited in his book The Salty Shore. He relates that circa 1948 the Tollesbury men started practising mid-water trawling by pairs of smacks towing a Larsen net and working with echo-sounders and radio navigation aids.
It brought a short resurgence of spratting and during the early 1950s Tollesbury fishermen formed Tolfish Limited; one of the few, perhaps the only co-operative founded amongst the fiercely independent Essexmen. The Company leased a quay for landing sprats at Brightlingsea, where an office was established, linked to the smacks by radio. The Tollesburymen also joined many other Essex fishermen from Leigh to Harwich who dredged white weed to be dried and dyed as fern-like domestic decoration. So profitable did this 'fishery' become during the early 1950s that the Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries Board rebuked them for neglecting more orthodox fishing but the boom was short-lived. By 1959 only four Tollesbury smacks were spratting using the Larsen trawl in pairs. Two others had gone to the Wash to try their luck there for the winter and four more were laid up in the creek. Tolfish was wound up soon after. [John Leather The Salty Shore P 104]
A member of the Leavett family from Tollesbury kindly sent me all he knows about the company.
To the best of my knowledge Tolfish was formed by Tollesbury fisherman in the 1950's.
The instigator was Ted Gager known as "Tally". They leased a quay to land sprats at Brightlingsea. They acquired a war time z -lighter (landing craft) which was moored at the hard and skippered by Harry Shakespeare. Sprats were then loaded onto the landing craft. A piece of saltings at the mouth of Bontings Creek was raised above the high tide mark to form a quay so the landing craft could load the days catch onto the Tolfish lorry and then taken to the Van Smirrens factory for processing, this was driven by Cyril Coates, the raised ground was known as Tolfish hump and still is to the older locals. Tolfish was wound up in the late 1950's as only two pairs of smacks were working.
Fred Leavett
Elaine Barker
Two pages of the Tolfish Minutes Book showing the meeting where the company was set up
Read More
Tolfish - Essex County Standard Jan 1952
Thanks to
Fred Leavett
Ed Heigham
Tony Millatt
Heather Haward
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