Programme 2
Cardigan Bay
IntroductionThe early history of the Herring fishery around Wales
South Wales and the Severn Sea
Cardigan Bay
North Wales
- Fishermen with their catch
In the mid-1700s Lewis Morris said that between Fishguard and Newport (Pembrokeshire) a thousand barrels of herring were cured yearly. All the ports along the coast were busy with the export trade in salted herring: in 1701 Cardigan exported 1072 barrels, with Dublin and London as the main markets; in 1782, 1734 barrels. However as the river Teifi silted up, the fishing industry migrated downstream to St Dogmaels.
Further up the coast, Aberporth was the main herring port in the southern part of Cardigan Bay, and at certain times of year the beach here would be full of fishermen curing their catches. After Aberaeron's harbour was built in 1811 it became an important fishing centre and by the 1830s over 30 herring fishing vessels were based there.
Along the coast north of Aberaeron there are numerous places where fishing was important, but the men didn't always need to take to their boats to catch herring. On this part of Cardigan Bay there were a number of fish-traps - 'coredau' or 'goredi' in Welsh - semi-circular stone structures which fill up at high tide, and then drain as the tide ebbs, trapping the fish. Once there were 12 such traps at Aberarth.
Aberystwyth was a busy fishing harbour, with 24 herring boats based there in 1730; 49 in 1748, plus another 38 along the Ceredigion coast. The fishing season began in September and lasted for three or four months. After one night's fishing - 5th October 1745 - 47 boats landed over 1,300,000 fish. Fishermen reckoned that the herrings deserted the area around 1840, possibly because of pollution in the estuary from the mine workings inland.
More herring were landed at Aberdyfi & Barmouth, although the North-Eastern reaches of Cardigan Bay, where the waters were shallow and tidal, were not home to any fishing fleets.
9:00PM Tuesday
Repeated on S4C Digidol 9:00PM Saturday
with English Subtitles