George Owen 1595
“Pennar Mowth
is the creeke that cometh up to Pembroke town, this being the greatest and
largest creeke in all Milford, it passeth up into the land 3 myles.
The Crowe is a
hollow or shelf a pretty way within the entrance of Pennar Mouth and it is an
oyster bed and on the Crowe groweth one of the best oysters of all Milford being
a big and sweet oyster, the poore people thereabouts are greatly relieved by the
oysters there, for upon lowe water the bed is drye and the people gather the
oysters there without any dredge or other helpe of boate.”
Pembrokeshire
Sea trading before 1900.
OYSTERS were
already an important export in 1600, travelling either overland or in "barkes
to Bristowe" [Owen 1603]. A
typical cargo of 20,000 went to
In 1662 five
shipments went to Ireland and in 1698 six to Bristol, five to London, one to
Liverpool and one to Bridgewater. Oysters were included in a mixed cargo to
Lisbon in 1713. Milford Haven
abounded in oysters in the 1740's and many were shipped to Holland and other
places [Morris 1748].
In the early
19th century the oyster fisheries in Milford Haven were famous, especially those
at Pennar Mouth [Cambrian Register 1818] and Llangwm [Fenton 1811]:
very large quantities were pickled and sent to Bristol.
Tenby also had an important fishery [Malkin 1807; Oldisworth 1810] and
large numbers were exported "in the shell" or pickled in small jars.
From 1850
onwards the fisheries rapidly declined but a few oysters were still going to
Bristol in 1866 [Sea Fisheries 1866].
Princes, Pigs
and people of Tenby
Oysters are one
of Tenby's sadder stories. For years thousands and thousands of oysters were
pickled in the town and shipped to ports in England and sometimes Ireland. The
oyster beds lay in the bay between Castle hill and Monkstone Point and boats
from all around joined in the plunder, The Corporation tried in vain to preserve
the immature fish and finally the bed was dredged dry.
1674 December
16. Pembroke
John Powell to
Mr Thomas Leman at Sir Robert Clayton and John Morris Esq.’s House in the Old
Jury London.
(The fiat
mentioned was of procuring the post of "comptroller of the customs in the Port of
Milford and members"; the patent was going to cost ś100.)
1719/20 March
3. [Penpedwast]
To the Water
Bailiffs in the County, the Masters of Ships within the Harbours of Milford and,
if occasion requires, to Hugh Fowler and William Bowen Esquires, Justices of the
Peace.
Tenby
& Oysters
The Tenby
oysters are of very large size, and are known all over South Wales, but they are
by no means equal in quality to those of Milford.
Oysters
Western Telegraph - 25th 10 1990.
Carew Oysters
The oyster farm
at Carew was started in 1980 to supplement the trade in native oysters that had
been carried on from Milford for 300 years but has been declining this century.
Both letters extracted from Pembrokeshire life: 1572 – 1843.