INDUSTRIES 



amount of line-fishing carried on by Blackpool 

 seafaring men in the intervals of catering for 

 summer visitors, but the amount of fishing done 

 is of little significance. 



St. Jnne's, Lytham, Southport, Marshside. — 

 These form a group of fishing ports of con- 

 siderable importance. The staple industry is 

 shrimp fishing, and the fleet of half-decked boats 

 engaged in the fishery is one of the finest in the 

 United Kingdom. Altogether there are about 

 200 fishermen engaged here in shrimping, and 

 in addition to these there are a considerable 

 number of people who find a livelihood in the 

 subsidiary industries connected with the shrimp 

 fisheries — boat-building, net-making, butter 

 manufacturing, pot manufacturing, and printing. 

 The fishermen's wives and children find occupa- 

 tion in shelling and potting the shrimps for the 

 market. There are about thirty shrimp potters 

 in Southport, and these are able to absorb all the 

 shrimps caught by the local fishermen, and in 

 addition a considerable number which are im- 

 ported from Holland. The catching power of 

 the Southport shrimping fleet is said to have 

 increased tenfold during the last twenty-five 

 years. 



The Liverpool District. — Liverpool itself is not 

 a fishing port of very great importance, but there 

 are associated with it a number of smaller ports 

 of great importance collectively. These are 

 Crosby and Formby, Rock Ferry, New Ferry, 

 Tranmere, Egremont, and New Brighton. 

 There are a few steam trawlers which are regis- 

 tered from Liverpool, and a considerable number 

 of smacks land their catches at this port, but 

 the greater number of vessels associated with 

 the Mersey estuary are small half-decked boats 

 engaged in shrimp fishing in the grounds in the 

 vicinity of the Liverpool banks and channels, 

 and to a certain extent in fishing for flat-fish on 

 the same grounds. Along the shore from 

 Formby Point to Waterloo there is a consider- 

 able amount of fishing for cockles, and also for 

 shrimps by means of ' hose ' nets, and stake nets 

 are also used in the same neighbourhood. Along 

 the Wallasey shore from New Brighton to 

 Hoylake there is at times a considerable fishery 

 for mussels on the Wallasey mussel beds, and 

 there is nearly always a flourishing fishery for 

 cockles on the sands along the Leasowe shore, 

 where there is also a good deal of stake-netting. 

 Altogether there is a fair amount of fishing 

 carried on from the Liverpool district, though 

 the characteristic fisheries are ' longshore ' ones 

 and those which can be carried on by compara- 

 tively small boats. 



Hoylake is a port of some considerable impor- 

 tance, and there is a fine fleet of smacks which 

 make it their centre. The Hoylake smacks fish 

 all over the Irish Sea north of Holyhead and 

 east of the Isle of Man, usually landing their 

 catches at Liverpool. 



The estuary of the Dee is under the control 

 of a separate Sea-fishery Committee, and is not 

 included within the scope of the present article. 

 The fisheries are purely local ones having for 

 their object cockles, mussels, and flat-fish, which 

 latter are caught by small boats and by stake-nets. 



Rhyl and Colwyn Bay. — This district was 

 partly in the old Lancashire sea-fishery area. 

 There are some mussel beds, and there is a 

 certain amount of fishing for sea fish by means 

 of the trawl, by lines, and by stake and draw- 

 nets. The grounds off Colwyn Bay are fre- 

 quented by Hoylake and other fishing boats, but 

 the amount of purely local fishing which goes 

 on is probably quite inconsiderable. 



Statistics of Men and Boats 



It is probably quite impossible at the present 

 time to obtain anything like an accurate return 

 of the exact numbers of fishing boats and men 

 engaged in fishing along the coasts of the county, 

 but the following return (prepared in 1903 by 

 Mr. R. A. Dawson, the late superintendent of 

 the Lancashire and Western Sea-Fisheries Dis- 

 trict) gives what is probably a fairly approximate 

 statement of the men and boats engaged in the 

 local sea-fishing industries.' 

 Northern or Fleetwood Division : — 



Notes : — 



I st class sailing boats, 1 5 tons and over ; 2nd class sail- 

 ing boats, under 1 5 tons but with sufficient cabin and 

 deck accommodation for the crew to live aboard ; 

 3rd class sailing boats, under 15 tons without living 

 accommodation on board for the crew ; 3rd {a) class 

 sailing boats, small open boats propelled by sails or 

 oars ; ' shore fishermen ' include boys and women. 



Value of the Industry 



Our information with regard to the value of 

 the fishing industry of Lancashire (as of other 



' See Rep. of Superintendent Lanes, and West. Sea Fish. 

 Joint Committee, Dec. 1904. 



413 



