Lines, Knots & Leaf: Tobacco and the Fishing Industry of Old Scarborough
Before the ice cream stalls and seafront amusements, Scarborough’s heartbeat was cast out over the water — tugged in with each haul of herring, cod, and mackerel. Long before tourism built its empire of hotels and bandstands, it was the boats that made Scarborough a town of pride and grit. I walked the Old Pier this morning — gulls wheeling, the scent of diesel and seaweed rising with the sun — and thought of the men who worked these docks a century ago. The herring girls, the net menders, the lads with salt in their blood and rope burns on their palms. Hard men. Honest ones. And more often than not, men with a plug of twist tobacco in their cheek and a hand-carved pipe stowed in their oilskin pocket. The Lifeblood of the North Sea By the mid-19th century, Scarborough was one of the most important fishing ports on England’s east coast. At its height, over 200 fishing vessels operated out of the harbour — from long-liners and cobles to the more powerful steam trawlers that e...