French families in the oyster trade
Several generations of the French family worked on the oyster grounds and waterfront at West Mersea. James Edwin French, born about 1854, married Bertha Caroline Green. He died on 10 May 1928 and she died on 27 August 1938.
A photograph from the oyster pits identifies Tom French, Arthur “Snoggie” French and Herbert Thomas French Waters handling the catch. Oyster working continued after the dredging boats came ashore: tending the layings, sorting oysters and moving them through the pits formed part of the same trade. The named workers make this a record of people as well as waterfront equipment.
The oyster tender OYSTER
Around 1930 Charles Kidby of Brightlingsea built the 14-foot clinker-built tender OYSTER for Jesse George French, who owned the smack HYACINTH. The tender passed to Leslie French and was later bought by Bill Baker. The French family acquired her again through a younger Cassell French, who subsequently sold her to Alan and Tubby Brooks in the early 1990s. The Brooks were also active in Mersea fishing-boat racing.
HYACINTH CK256
The oyster smack HYACINTH CK256 was built by Aldous in 1900 for the French family. She worked the oyster grounds and remained in family ownership until the mid-1960s.
The Colne Smack Preservation Society records HYACINTH as a 36-foot smack built by Aldous of Brightlingsea. After the French family sold her in the mid-1960s, Clarke and Carters refitted her, and in 1969 she was sold to Mrs M. Kennell. A Mersea Museum photograph identifies HYACINTH as the winner of the 1948 West Mersea smack race, when she was still owned by L. French.
Leslie French
Leslie French was born in 1904 and entered his father's oyster business at fourteen. He later worked with his own oyster smack, painted watercolours and wrote The Memories of a Mersea Oysterman.
French’s memoir was first published in 1985. The museum reissued it in 2009 with photographs, paintings and a new foreword. That publication records fishing methods and childhood memories in Leslie’s own voice; it should not be confused with the separate biography of Cassell French.
Cassell French’s working life
Cassell French, born in West Mersea in 1897, worked as an oyster fisherman, oyster buyer and yacht crewman. He went to sea on yachts in 1914 and later served in the Royal Navy. In a 117-minute interview recorded by Trevor Lummis in 1974, he discussed dredging methods, privately held oyster layings, the formation of the Tollesbury and Mersea Oyster Fishery Company, and the damage done to the beds by limpets.
Boat and waterfront records
The Colne Smack Preservation Society has details of HYACINTH. The Coast Road photographic trail identifies the family members shown working beside the oyster pits.