Stags Head on Coast Road
The Stags Head Oyster Fishery Company operated from a waterfront shed on Coast Road. A photograph taken around 1940 shows oysterman George Stoker in front of the shed. Barbed wire crosses the foreground, a reminder that this working shoreline was also part of the island's wartime defences.
The same premises later appeared in photographs as Bentley's Oyster Fishery Company. By about 1952 baskets bearing Bentley's identifying mark were being unloaded at the Hard. Those photographs document successive names connected with the shed; they do not by themselves demonstrate that one company was a legal continuation of the other.
BOY GEORGE CK28
George James Stoker commissioned the open oyster boat BOY GEORGE CK28 in 1931. She was named after his son, George Thomas Stoker. The surviving boat and the Coast Road photograph together give a view of the family's work in the oyster trade.
George Thomas Stoker's naval service
George Thomas joined the Royal Naval Patrol Service and served aboard HMS VAN MEERLANT, a former Dutch minelayer. He was killed aged 21 when the vessel struck a mine in the Thames Estuary on 4 June 1941. The service memorial records him as ordinary seaman LT/JX 242494, Panel 6, Column 2. His parents were George James and Constance May Stoker of West Mersea.
Photographs and memorial
Coast Road photographic trail · Royal Naval Patrol Service memorial. See also Bentley's oyster fishery.