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The Case of the Coracle |
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© The National Coracle Centre, Cenarth |
Before licensing was introduced in the later half of the 19th Century, many households would have used a coracle to catch fish in order to feed the family. The diet of such households would have relied very much on locally caught fish.
At any given time, there would have only been a few coracle makers, who would have produced many coracle frames each season. The materials required were often gathered by the fisherman and his family, who then covered the finished frames.
In 1863, the introduction of the expensive license fee greatly reduced the number of coracles made and used on the rivers of west Wales after this time. Before then, it was estimated that there were over 300 coracles fishing on the River Teifi alone.
Although the license fee discouraged many from fishing, the great number of salmon returning to rivers in west Wales meant that the coracle fishermen who continued could earn a fair living by shipping a great volume of fish to the main markets of Cardiff and London by rail.
The introduction of licenses also increased the volume of fish removed by illegal methods, which became a full time occupation for some families, resulting in many stories about local poachers and water bailiffs.
Words: Martin Fowler
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