Oyster Cultivation

The Roman taste for British oysters started a 2000 year history in which Whitstable has played a major part. Oyster cultivation was of major importance and in 1489 the Privy Council examined a dispute between the Lordships of Whitstable and of Milton on the dredging of oysters and the care of the oyster beds.

Oyster cultivation is a complex farming process requiring just the right mix of salt and fresh water and careful tending of the seabed. The fishermen needed to work closely together and in 1793 and act of parliament created the “Company of Free Fishers and Dredgers of Whitstable”.

The trade grew and by 1850 there were over 80 yawls with 14 market boats journeying to Billingsgate market in London. In 1862, 60 million oysters were sent to market with a value of £91,000, and at times Whitstable supplied half the market!

Oyster dredging was reorganised in 1896 into “The Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company”, which competed with the Seasalter and Ham Company. Up to the outbreak of the First World War, oyster cultivation was profitable. In the 1920s the trade declined rapidly due to hard winters and disease. Recently a scientific approach has revived oyster cultivation, but the yawls will not be needed again.

See: "Oysters and Dredgermen" by Pike, Cann and Lambert.

The map to the left shows the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company's beds in 1902. It has been scanned from A O Collard's fascinating little book "The Oyster Dredgers of Whitstable" which covers many aspects of the cultivation of oysters with contemporary photographs. Note the fish wiers, the Street and several oyster beds outside the company's area.

Please click for a larger map.

The complete book may be viewed on-line at:
http://oystertown.net/toadow1.html