The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

engaged, that it was essentially small in scale, deployed primitive
techniques, and was worked by self-employed fishermen whose product
met subsistence needs. While this may have been the case in particular
localities at certain times, it is a generalised view that largely understates
the extent and contribution of the inshore fisheries. At Scarborough, for
instance, the records of parish income between 1414 and
1442—typically provided by an incidental documentary source—relate
that tithes were paid by at least 21 fishermen who worked inshore waters
for plaice in winter, lobsters and cod during Lent, and skate in summer,
operations that yielded a comfortable annual average income of £7 per
man. The craft deployed in this activity were described as either
‘batellae’, which were presumably rowing boats, or ‘cobellae’, an early
reference to the coble, a vessel of c20ft in length, with three oars, a sail
and a crew of three to five men. 200 Peculiar to the north-east coast of
England down to the twentieth century, these craft were distinguished by
a high brow and two side keels fitted aft to facilitate landing and
re-launching from open beaches. 201 Less prosperous, and perhaps less
glamorous to the historian, Scarborough’s inshore fisheries nevertheless
engaged more fishermen and proved more enduring than the
distant-water ventures mounted from the port.
Glimpses of inshore fishing in other parts of the British Isles are
available in scattered sources. The probate inventories of the parish of
Clee, on the south bank of the Humber, are of value in this respect,
though by its very nature this source relates only to persons of some
wealth and therefore excludes many of those engaged in fishing. Traps,
nets, lines and ‘fishing grounds’ appear regularly in the inventories to
suggest the type of fishing practised in the early sixteenth century.
Significantly, such belongings generally formed just part of the
deceased’s property, the bulk of which comprised animals, land and
farming implements, indicating that fishing was a secondary occupation
for many local farmers. 202 In south west England, the observations of
Hooker and Hitchcock, together with incidental documentary accounts,
offer much evidence on inshore fishing in the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries. Here, the distinction between inshore and offshore
200 Heath, ‘North Sea Fishing’, 57-9.
201 Godfrey, Yorkshire Fishing Fleets, 11-12.
202 Ambler & Watkinson, Farmers and Fishermen, 20-4.
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