Filey: Last of the Coble Fishermen

It's 4:00am on a July morning at Filey and there's a hustle and bustle on Coble Landing. Dave Pockley is about to launch his traditional coble to haul in 300 lobster pots in Filey Bay. The coble is launched from the beach by a tractor towing it into the sea and it heads off to the Brigg to pick-up his partner, Neville, who has been putting out salmon nets. Scenes like this were an everyday occurrence for centuries, not just at Filey, but up and down the coast at Staithes, Robin Hood's Bay, as well as Whitby, Scarborough and Bridlington. This outing will be one of the last that Dave will make (he retired in 2016). It's not the hard work, the cold, or the early hours - and he's used to a fluctuating income - but the red tape: rules and regulations that are stacked against the small boats who earn their living from inshore fishing - unlike the large commercial beam trawlers who hoover everything and anything on the sea bed offshore. Fishing still takes place at Filey, but these are seasonal part-time fishermen, not those like Dave, who fished in the dark stormy cold January seas. Our Channel has an associated film: The knitting of fishermen's ganseys (jumpers). This was filmed at Robin Hood's Bay and also with Margaret Taylor, at Filey Museum, who shows how one is knit and what the patterns mean.