Drift-net fishing

One frustrating feature of both subsistence and commercial fishing during the medieval period is that comparatively little specific documentary information exists regarding the vessels and gear employed in coastal parishes. The sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have much more detailed sources of evidence in probate documents (especially inventories), manorial records and tithe accounts, which may (in the case of fishing gear particularly) allow an insight into previous practice. The basic techniques for catching fish have not essentially changed in centuries, and that includes many of the methods employed today, so it is probably permissible for aspects of capture of the early modern era to be applied to an earlier time period.

There is no doubt that the inhabitants of Lowestoft, from very early on, would have been aware of the sources of food available from the sea. Two pelagic species, herrings and sprats, shoaled relatively close inshore during the autumn and early winter, while the former were also available during the spring – again, at no great distance from land. The late spring–early summer months made mackerel available and demersal fish of different types would have been present all year round, with species taken varying seasonally: broadly speaking, whiting and cod during the autumn and winter, flatfish (e.g. flounders, dabs and soles) during the spring and summer. This is a generalised view of the situation, but it serves to give some idea of the opportunities available to local people of the time.

The Lowestoft fishing industry of the early modern period has been investigated extensively elsewhere and it would be of limited use to repeat the findings here, aside from occasional cross-references where useful. The main purpose of this chapter is to consider the role of maritime pursuits as influences in Lowestoft's medieval economy and to acknowledge the advantages of relocating the town to a cliff-top position. As was discussed in the opening pages of the previous chapter, sea-based enterprise was probably not the only consideration in making the move from the original township's site, but it is likely to have been an important one – perhaps, even, the most significant.