Cornish Fish Cellars

In their annual migration from the warm waters of the North Atlantic, the pilchard shoals rarely travelled further east than the coasts of Cornwall and southwest Devon. Here they were caught in vast numbers and preserved, for export or use, in fish cellars which lay along the coast. The Cornish fish...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antiquity
Main Author: Pounds, N. J. G.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1944
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00018263
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003598X00018263
Description
Summary:In their annual migration from the warm waters of the North Atlantic, the pilchard shoals rarely travelled further east than the coasts of Cornwall and southwest Devon. Here they were caught in vast numbers and preserved, for export or use, in fish cellars which lay along the coast. The Cornish fish cellar was a building of highly specialized type, in which the pilchards were salted and pressed. With the gradual disappearance of the pilchard fishery during the nineteenth century the cellars were first abandoned, and then became ruinous or were converted to other uses.