Look for Tweed salmon on local menus. It is a rare delicacy today. Years spent living
wild in the ocean and eating a varied diet gives it a distinctive taste and texture.
As many as 300 men were once employed in the industry, catching up to 300,000 fish
in a good year. Today, only two fisheries continue in regular commercial operation.
From mid-June to mid-September look for the netsmen and their traditional boats,
or “cobles” fishing near Berwick’s Old Bridge and at Paxton House, about 4 miles
(6km) upstream.
Each of the fisheries had a shiel, or hut to accommodate fishermen and their gear
during the season. A shiel in Sandstell Road in Spittal is thought to date from
as early as 1735. It is now in the care of Spittal Improvement Trust. There are
many shiels along the banks of the Tweed. A few lie derelict while others have been
converted into holiday homes or are used by sport fishermen. Some have a platform,
or “fording box” where a man kept watch for the salmon coming upstream. The catch
was kept in an earth-covered “fish-house” beside the shiel, then taken to Berwick.
London was the main market for Tweed salmon. Until the late 18th century, the salmon
were salted and taken by sea from Berwick to London in fast sailing ships called
Berwick smacks. From 1787, the salmon were shipped fresh. packed round with ice
that was stored in specially-built ice-houses. Several ice-houses can be seen around
the town including one owned by the Berwick Preservation Trust, in Bankhill, beneath
the Royal Tweed Bridge.
CLICK HERE for photo images of Tweed salmon fishing today
