For hundreds of years, fishing communities along the Dorset coast lived from the shoals of mackerel that migrate between May and October. Fishing the traditional way, with seine nets in shallow waters, tightly knit crews used wooden lerret boats to pull bumper catches ashore. Bound by this communal, seasonal wait and scramble for fish, their friendships and rivalries, identity and language, were shaped by the sea. The stories, photographs and recordings collected here give us a vivid picture of a way of life that has largely disappeared. We hear of family gatherings on the beach, and of men and women who lived for the fishing and whose intimate local knowledge, gleaned over a lifetime and passed down over the generations, were essential to their livelihoods. These voices echo through time to tell us about people who were completely connected to place and who lived by 'the ways of beach'.

About the Author
Sarah Acton is a poet, oral history writer and theatre-maker whose projects focus on nature, seasons and place. She is co-founder of the Heart of Stone community theatre project on Portland in Dorset, and lives on the Devon coast, where she swims and rows in the sea.


Book Information
ISBN 9781915068088
Author Sarah Acton
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Little Toller Books
Publisher Little Toller Books