North Norfolk Fishermen

This book tells the story of the North Norfolk fishing industry within living memory, compiled using numerous interviews with the fishermen themselves as well as rare photographs from the post-war fishing industry. With Cromer featuring as its centre point, long famous for its crabs, the fishing practices across the villages and towns between Wells and south-east Norfolk begin to unravel. Here, fishing has been characteristically traditional and markedly different from the industrial-scale fishing operating from the Wash.

The boats, fishing gear and techniques are all described, in detail and often in the fishermen’s own words, providing an important record of smaller-scale fishing practices lost in recent years. It has been written at a time when new designs of boats and fishing gear are changing the traditional face of the industry, and fishermen’s sons are increasingly choosing to turn away from the sea. Fran Weatherhead’s book forms a portrait to preserve a rapidly changing profession which has helped to define the character of the Norfolk coast that will be sure to please both fishermen and locals.