THE FISHING BASKETS OF NORTHUMBERLAND
Research made possible with Leader funding through the Northumbria Basketry Group and additional funding from the Catherine MacLuhan Trust. Advice and support from Katrina Porteous, Jack Browell, Bulmer and Craster WI groups. Thanks to the Olde Ship Inn, Seahouses for allowing us to copy the fishwife's back creel hanging in the bar.
These are the baskets used in the fishing industry which flourished along the coast from Berwick on Tweed to Cullercoats near the mouth of the Tyne. They include baskets used to collect bait, baskets that were taken to sea with a baited line, baskets used to transport fish once it was landed and baskets used as measures.
Only a few of these remain- they were strongly made but used in tough conditions and most have perished. Luckily we have some wonderful depictions of them in photos and art works.
William Bell Scott painted a series of murals at Wallington Hall in the mid 1850s. He portrayed women fleeing with all their possessions packed into fishwife’s back creels and even a baby tucked up in a fishing swill
Winslow Homer, an American artist, came to work in Cullercoats in 1881 and 1882 and painted many images of the fishing community there. His paintings portrayed a tough and resolute people dealing with the vagaries of making a living from the sea.
Only a few of these remain- they were strongly made but used in tough conditions and most have perished. Luckily we have some wonderful depictions of them in photos and art works.
William Bell Scott painted a series of murals at Wallington Hall in the mid 1850s. He portrayed women fleeing with all their possessions packed into fishwife’s back creels and even a baby tucked up in a fishing swill
Winslow Homer, an American artist, came to work in Cullercoats in 1881 and 1882 and painted many images of the fishing community there. His paintings portrayed a tough and resolute people dealing with the vagaries of making a living from the sea.
The fishing craft of Northumberland were known as cobles, small boats with a high prow and shallow draft suitable for going through rough seas and then being pulled up on the sandy beaches.
Fishing from them required a baited line to be let out over the side and collecting bait fell to the women. They would take small sturdy arm baskets out to the beds of shellfish on rocks at the sea's edge and collect cockles, winkles and mussels. For strength the handle was made as part of the main frame of the basket.
Fishing from them required a baited line to be let out over the side and collecting bait fell to the women. They would take small sturdy arm baskets out to the beds of shellfish on rocks at the sea's edge and collect cockles, winkles and mussels. For strength the handle was made as part of the main frame of the basket.
Arm Basket
When they had collected enough shellfish the women sat opening them, scooping them out and using them to bait the hooks on the line. As they worked they coiled the line up in baskets called swills with grasses laid in between to prevent the line from getting tangled.
If the weather was foul and the line could not be used the bait was wasted (smoored) and had to be removed and the whole process began again.
The swill was used to take the baited and coiled line out to sea. It was made in a scoop shape, from 4 to 6 feet in length with hand holds either side so it could be filled with the baited line, handled easily, lifted once fully laden, taken aboard and propped up on the side of a boat. The line was then paid out over the side and hauled back in again when fish had taken the bait.Once the bait had been gathered it was shelled by the women, attached to
If the weather was foul and the line could not be used the bait was wasted (smoored) and had to be removed and the whole process began again.
The swill was used to take the baited and coiled line out to sea. It was made in a scoop shape, from 4 to 6 feet in length with hand holds either side so it could be filled with the baited line, handled easily, lifted once fully laden, taken aboard and propped up on the side of a boat. The line was then paid out over the side and hauled back in again when fish had taken the bait.Once the bait had been gathered it was shelled by the women, attached to
Swill
Once ashore the catch was transported to market or door to door direct to the housewife in a back creel. In Northumberland the fish wife's creel was distinctive. It was made to a frame pattern using a wooden batten to secure the first ribs. Floating ribs were added as the basket grew making it untidy on the inside despite its regularity on the outside. It is heavy even before the fish go in.
Fishwife's Back Creel
All the fishing baskets I have seen so far have been made from cane, a material indigenous to the Far East. Cane is a climber which grows in tropical rain forests and was imported incidentally as a natural packing tape. It would have been ideal for making baskets as it required little preparation and was long and tapered little. Cane was sorted into useful sizes for the various creels, swills and bait baskets, damped and used for ribs as well as the weavers. Frames were made of oddments of wood.
The back creels were particularly well made with great care and attention and fine cane but swills were more rugged and hefty, using the thickest cane.
Celebrated with a photo and a poem these two ladies walked barefoot in the cold sands of Lindisfarne. One of the donkey creels, on the left, is a frame basket, like the back creels, while the other is a square basket.
The back creels were particularly well made with great care and attention and fine cane but swills were more rugged and hefty, using the thickest cane.
Celebrated with a photo and a poem these two ladies walked barefoot in the cold sands of Lindisfarne. One of the donkey creels, on the left, is a frame basket, like the back creels, while the other is a square basket.
Sally and Bess
Fishing from cobles was inshore fishing but over time bigger boats and crews and large nets were introduced to fish for herring. Huge shoals of these fish were to be found right round our coasts and they were an invaluable source of food as they could be salted down in barrels and stored for winter use when protein was in short supply.
The industrial volume of the catches of herring gave rise to the need for a measure. There were various efforts to pass legislation which would standardise the measuring of catches resulting in exacting specifications for the construction of baskets. The cran would hold 42 gallons of fish, the half cran 21 gallons and the quarter cran, (the usual standard measure) held 9 3/8 gallons.
When they were made these baskets must be measured and then stamped to record their use as an official measure. Many were made in East Anglian workshops but measuring sticks have been found elsewhere.
A Northumbrian fisherman told me each one was used only a hundred times before the bottom sagged or other damage was done.
The industrial volume of the catches of herring gave rise to the need for a measure. There were various efforts to pass legislation which would standardise the measuring of catches resulting in exacting specifications for the construction of baskets. The cran would hold 42 gallons of fish, the half cran 21 gallons and the quarter cran, (the usual standard measure) held 9 3/8 gallons.
When they were made these baskets must be measured and then stamped to record their use as an official measure. Many were made in East Anglian workshops but measuring sticks have been found elsewhere.
A Northumbrian fisherman told me each one was used only a hundred times before the bottom sagged or other damage was done.
Herring Cran
On board large trawlers there was room for a gritlin or great line basket, which took a very long line – up to 5 miles- baited with chunks of herring while at sea to make use of the opportunity to catch white fish. This was a round basket with cork on one side to stick the hooks in before they had been baited and was the size of a half cran.
Gritlin Basket or Half Cran
There is also a tradition of using fenders made of cane and some of these survive despite the hard work to which they were put, bumping between the boats and their neighbours or the stone quays where they were tied.
Boat Fender
In addition fishermen made their own lobster or crab pots by hand with wood and handmade netting, or knitting as it is termed in Northumberland. This pot was made by the retired fisherman, Jack Browell.
Lobster Pot
The Northumbrian Fishwife’s Back Creel - my own travels with this basket.
An unusual basket caught my eye 15 years ago at the Anstruther Fisheries Museum in Fife, Scotland and I had never seen anything like it before. At first glance it seemed to be part stake and strand, part frame basket but it was in a display, I was with my family, and it seemed we were not to be able to get to know each other better on that particular day.
I never forgot the basket and eventually tracked it down in a collection of photographs of the fisher folk of the Northumberland coast. There it was used by the woman of the household to carry the fish caught by her man from his small coble or fishing boat. The women wore traditional costume with skirts with rows of tucks in and an apron over the top, the men wore navy blue gansey jumpers knitted by the women.
In 2005 we moved to Northumberland for a couple of years and I was invited to give a talk to a WI group in Boulmer. Although this is an RAF base, several of the group were able to tell me about the fishing life from their own experiences and ended by serenading me with the Cullercoats Fishwife’s Song. I was enchanted and couldn’t wait to find out more.
Then in June of 2006 I was demonstrating basket making at Alnwick, a market town in North Northumberland (famous for its Castle and Gardens) and a costumed re-enactor told me I should visit the Ship Inn at Seahouses, on the coast, where a collection of fishing memorabilia including baskets hung in the bar.
At the first opportunity (August) I headed for this pub to find to my delight that there was a fishwife’s creel hanging up in the ceiling with many other fishing items. It was a busy evening so I arranged with helpful bar staff to come back in the morning to take photos and measure the basket.
By 11am in the morning it was a quieter spot and the cleaner kindly let me take the basket down and have a thorough look at it. Close to I could see that it was a frame basket with a wooden bar into which ribs of cane were inserted to start with and then the weaving continued in cane and more ribs were added in. I was able to take measurements and details of every aspect of construction and to see and photograph the many other items in the pub.
Then in October I was asked to give another talk in the county at a rural WI and one of the ladies there produced an even better version of this basket, very finely made but exactly the same shape and style.
Two days later I gave a talk at Craster, a fishing village, to find that a local fisherman, Jack Browell, had sent along a basket for me to look at. This was a charming little frame gathering basket also made of cane.
I arranged to meet him at his home and he talked for a long time about his fishing career and life and of course about the baskets used. He suddenly started showing me how to make netting for a lobster pot (knitting he called it) and he must be one of few who can do this now.
I tracked down the local Poet, Katrina Porteous, who had recorded a great deal of information about the fishing way of life just as it was dying out and had saved some baskets herself including a small fishwife’s creel made for a little girl and an arm basket. I photographed them outside her house.
The icing on the cake was to be sent a wonderful picture of a group of school girls who had been detailed to dress as fishwives and bring in baskets and outfits from home. This was from a childhood friend of one of the Northumbria Basketry Group
Later I was able to spend time researching the back creel and all the other baskets used in this area along the coast from North Shields to Berwick and found large and small back and donkey creels, arm baskets, swills and a variety of more widespread baskets, crans and quarter crans.
At one time fishing was a vital part of the local economy. Things have changed now and the highly efficient boats, nets and technology introduced since the war have meant it is so easy to track and catch fish that there aren’t many left – certainly not enough to sustain the old fishing communities.
These resilient people have found other ways to earn their living; there is a tourism industry, they take people out to the Farne Islands to see puffins and seals, there is some lobster and crab fishing and in Craster they smoke kippers.
Like so many traditional baskets the fishwife’s creel has a simplicity and economy of design which make it beautiful and practical at the same time. It is a reminder of and a tribute to a vanished way of life in the fishing villages of Northumberland.
An unusual basket caught my eye 15 years ago at the Anstruther Fisheries Museum in Fife, Scotland and I had never seen anything like it before. At first glance it seemed to be part stake and strand, part frame basket but it was in a display, I was with my family, and it seemed we were not to be able to get to know each other better on that particular day.
I never forgot the basket and eventually tracked it down in a collection of photographs of the fisher folk of the Northumberland coast. There it was used by the woman of the household to carry the fish caught by her man from his small coble or fishing boat. The women wore traditional costume with skirts with rows of tucks in and an apron over the top, the men wore navy blue gansey jumpers knitted by the women.
In 2005 we moved to Northumberland for a couple of years and I was invited to give a talk to a WI group in Boulmer. Although this is an RAF base, several of the group were able to tell me about the fishing life from their own experiences and ended by serenading me with the Cullercoats Fishwife’s Song. I was enchanted and couldn’t wait to find out more.
Then in June of 2006 I was demonstrating basket making at Alnwick, a market town in North Northumberland (famous for its Castle and Gardens) and a costumed re-enactor told me I should visit the Ship Inn at Seahouses, on the coast, where a collection of fishing memorabilia including baskets hung in the bar.
At the first opportunity (August) I headed for this pub to find to my delight that there was a fishwife’s creel hanging up in the ceiling with many other fishing items. It was a busy evening so I arranged with helpful bar staff to come back in the morning to take photos and measure the basket.
By 11am in the morning it was a quieter spot and the cleaner kindly let me take the basket down and have a thorough look at it. Close to I could see that it was a frame basket with a wooden bar into which ribs of cane were inserted to start with and then the weaving continued in cane and more ribs were added in. I was able to take measurements and details of every aspect of construction and to see and photograph the many other items in the pub.
Then in October I was asked to give another talk in the county at a rural WI and one of the ladies there produced an even better version of this basket, very finely made but exactly the same shape and style.
Two days later I gave a talk at Craster, a fishing village, to find that a local fisherman, Jack Browell, had sent along a basket for me to look at. This was a charming little frame gathering basket also made of cane.
I arranged to meet him at his home and he talked for a long time about his fishing career and life and of course about the baskets used. He suddenly started showing me how to make netting for a lobster pot (knitting he called it) and he must be one of few who can do this now.
I tracked down the local Poet, Katrina Porteous, who had recorded a great deal of information about the fishing way of life just as it was dying out and had saved some baskets herself including a small fishwife’s creel made for a little girl and an arm basket. I photographed them outside her house.
The icing on the cake was to be sent a wonderful picture of a group of school girls who had been detailed to dress as fishwives and bring in baskets and outfits from home. This was from a childhood friend of one of the Northumbria Basketry Group
Later I was able to spend time researching the back creel and all the other baskets used in this area along the coast from North Shields to Berwick and found large and small back and donkey creels, arm baskets, swills and a variety of more widespread baskets, crans and quarter crans.
At one time fishing was a vital part of the local economy. Things have changed now and the highly efficient boats, nets and technology introduced since the war have meant it is so easy to track and catch fish that there aren’t many left – certainly not enough to sustain the old fishing communities.
These resilient people have found other ways to earn their living; there is a tourism industry, they take people out to the Farne Islands to see puffins and seals, there is some lobster and crab fishing and in Craster they smoke kippers.
Like so many traditional baskets the fishwife’s creel has a simplicity and economy of design which make it beautiful and practical at the same time. It is a reminder of and a tribute to a vanished way of life in the fishing villages of Northumberland.
The Cullercoats Fishwife's Song
Aw's a Cullercoats fish-lass, se cozy an' free
Browt up in a cottage close on by the sea;
An' aw sell fine fresh fish ti poor an' ti rich--
Will ye buy, will ye buy, will ye buy maw fresh fish?
Spoken- Finne codlin's hinny; cheaper for hyem consumption
thin butcher meat. There's fine mackerel, come. Mistor, ye shall hae them at yor awn price, but the sea's
up. Aw's sure, fish just noo's as bad to catch iz husbands; and a greet deal warse
ti sell.
Sings- Will ye buy, will ye buy, will ye buy my fresh fish?
Imitate cries- D'ye want a-n-y fish?
Byeth barefoot and barelegged aw trudge mony a week,
Wi' a creel on mee back an' a bloom on mee cheek;
Aw'll supply ye wi' flat fish, fine skyet, or fresh ling,
And sometimes pennywilks, crabs, an' lobsters aw bring.
Will ye buy, will ye buy? etc.
Aw work hard for mee livin', frev a frind aw ne'er begs,
An' aw huff the young gents when they peep at my legs;
Aw's hilthy an' hansom, quite willin' and strong,
To toil for my livin', cryin' fish the day long.
Spoken- That's what aw cawl fishin' for a livin'. But tawkin'
aboot fish, thor's as queer fish on land as there's in the sea--
Gladstone, Tom Sayers, and Blondin-aw cawl them star-fish,
that baits the public ti sum tuin. Folks that neglects to visit
Balmbra's Music Saloon, aw consider them flat-fish. Mackey's
men they're dry fish; ye can tell by their gills. Sailors, they're
salt fish, that shund always keep a wether eye on land-sharks.
Volunteers, they're fresh fish, who, with wor sowigers and sailors, myek
up wor sole defenders. As for me, with yor kind favours, aw'd be like a fish
oot o' wetter-aye, whei! Aw's a maiden fish oot iv her teens
in sairch ov a husband to myek me comfortable. Aw want ti teyk
moorins for life in the roads an' channels o' matrimony.
Will ye buy, will ye buy? etc.
Aw's a Cullercoats fish-lass, se cozy an' free
Browt up in a cottage close on by the sea;
An' aw sell fine fresh fish ti poor an' ti rich--
Will ye buy, will ye buy, will ye buy maw fresh fish?
Spoken- Finne codlin's hinny; cheaper for hyem consumption
thin butcher meat. There's fine mackerel, come. Mistor, ye shall hae them at yor awn price, but the sea's
up. Aw's sure, fish just noo's as bad to catch iz husbands; and a greet deal warse
ti sell.
Sings- Will ye buy, will ye buy, will ye buy my fresh fish?
Imitate cries- D'ye want a-n-y fish?
Byeth barefoot and barelegged aw trudge mony a week,
Wi' a creel on mee back an' a bloom on mee cheek;
Aw'll supply ye wi' flat fish, fine skyet, or fresh ling,
And sometimes pennywilks, crabs, an' lobsters aw bring.
Will ye buy, will ye buy? etc.
Aw work hard for mee livin', frev a frind aw ne'er begs,
An' aw huff the young gents when they peep at my legs;
Aw's hilthy an' hansom, quite willin' and strong,
To toil for my livin', cryin' fish the day long.
Spoken- That's what aw cawl fishin' for a livin'. But tawkin'
aboot fish, thor's as queer fish on land as there's in the sea--
Gladstone, Tom Sayers, and Blondin-aw cawl them star-fish,
that baits the public ti sum tuin. Folks that neglects to visit
Balmbra's Music Saloon, aw consider them flat-fish. Mackey's
men they're dry fish; ye can tell by their gills. Sailors, they're
salt fish, that shund always keep a wether eye on land-sharks.
Volunteers, they're fresh fish, who, with wor sowigers and sailors, myek
up wor sole defenders. As for me, with yor kind favours, aw'd be like a fish
oot o' wetter-aye, whei! Aw's a maiden fish oot iv her teens
in sairch ov a husband to myek me comfortable. Aw want ti teyk
moorins for life in the roads an' channels o' matrimony.
Will ye buy, will ye buy? etc.
Cullercoats Fishwife's Creel
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