Scotch Girls Gutting Fish, 1950's
Fisher girls gutting the fish on the Quayside
Great Yarmouth Musuems
Photograph of the Scotch Girls at work
By John Layton
The ladies seen here had travelled from Scotland with the fleet.
They would set up trestle tables on the Fishwharf so that they could process the catch as soon as it came off the boats.
My father, when he was a lad, would go with his friends and make faces at the girls as they worked. The girls would then throw mackerel back at the boys, which certainly helped to feed their families!
(Mackerel, being a type of shark, were attracted to the struggling herring and would be caught in the nets. They were of no use to the industry, so would have been thrown out in any case.)