The History of the Southwick and Shoreham Oyster Fishery by Kim Matthews
Monday 14th November at 7.30 pm
in Southwick Community Centre
Members £3, non-members £5
This illustrated talk describes how hundreds of first-class oyster smacks and fishermen from Essex, Jersey and Sussex battled winter gales, government interference and tragic loss in order to land deep-sea Channel oysters into Southwick and Shoreham. Many of the local people, like the oyster merchants Braziers, were joined by migrating families from Essex who followed their menfolk to Sussex. Kim Matthews originally trained as a teacher but also spent 8 years as an inshore fisherman. He understands the feast and famine of the fishing profession and also has oyster dredgermen in his ancestral line