HS Fishing 2000 Ltd, Smoke house
Photographs of HS Fishing 2000 Ltd, smoke house in 2007
By Lauren Mccurdy
Profile of Mike Kelly: Owner of HS Fishing 2000 Ltd
Mike Kelly owns HS Fishing: a traditional smoke house on Sutton Road in Great Yarmouth. He says a typical day involves: "anything from putting fish down, soaking it, then we go on to the riving, then hanging, then we switch over to packing. The actual process is continuous, because obviously the fish takes 5 days to smoke so we've always got fish in advance for packing".
He works up to between 60 to 70 hours a week. He employs three full time members of staff and one part-time member during the herring season, they all work together to wash, pack and smoke the fish. He mostly smokes mackerel and herring, which are imported from Norway by truck. 98% of his business is for export to the Mediterranean, some goes to London and there is a small local market.
He says he enjoys everything about the job and the whole process of smoking in a traditional way.
Mike Kelly standing in the corridor which opens on the smoking sheds
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Mike Kelly holding one of the traditional wooden boxes they use to transport their smoked herring, standing next to the original label printing machine
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Close-up of the herring hung on speats during the smoking process
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Mike Kelly on the ground floor of the smoke house with the wood shavings piled up ready to be lit
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Close-up of the tools used for piling up the wood shavings for smoking
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Mike Kelly on the left with two of his staff
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Herring soaking in water before smoking
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Close-up of herring soaking in water
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