John Luff and John Woodford on Fishing

John W: But there was one family members who made their living from collecting winkles and that’s the Etheridge family and they used to go winkling off Lane End and they used to sell the winkles to Portsmouth, and they’d be out there in all weathers, the whole family…

John L: The whole family went out.

John W: … and they most probably made a lot of money from it (laughs), I don’t know, but that was the Etheridge family. That was in the 1960s?

John L: Oh, doing it when I was fishing.

John W: They did it for many years.

John L: Only when there’s an ‘R’ in the month.

John W: That’s true.

John L: You could only pick winkles when there’s a ‘R’ in the month because the rest of the time they’re breeding, and cockles is the other way round. You could only have cockles when there’s not an ‘R’ in the month, in the summer.

John W: And that’s hard work too.

John L: That’s raking.

John W: Oh dreadful. You rake at low tide, with a rake (laughs). St Helen’s is a very good place for that, St Helen’s beach.

John L: My son used to go to the Harbour and do cockles and he used to cook ‘em up and put them in vinegar and sell ‘em round the pubs.