This long established company has been selling fish and shellfish for the last 60 years, and although our grandfather did not have the selection that we know today.
He first stated trading under the name of Arthur Dench and sons, in 1947 with only a few items cockles, eels, shrimps and winkles, and these were served from outside the wooden looped shutters on a trestle table, all piled up and sold in pints and half pints for a few pennies
The cockles were fished in old leigh and the boats went out on the tide and returned on the next, as all the cockles were raked by hand this was extremely hard work. They were collected into baskets put into the hold of the cockle boat . On retuning to shore the cockles were again put back into the baskets and carried on yokes around
the fishermans necks.
Once the boat had been unloaded into the shed the cooking process could begin, it was important that the days catch
was cooked as quickly as possible. If the cockles where not cooked quickly
enough then they died in the shells and would not open after cooking. The cockles were put into small metal nests and cooked for ten minutes in a large pressure cooker until
the shells opened and then they were thoroughly washed and sieved to remove
thier shells.
Once cooked and cleaned the cockles where bagged into muslin nests.
These nests held a gallon (8 pints) and sold to the local customers or taken to billingsgate market.
The shrimp boats went out into the estuary and again retuned on the next tide. The local shrimp was brown in colour and known as a shallow water shrimp these were cooked on the boats and brought ashore in gallon nets. Unfortunately these have now become extinct in leigh on sea.
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