Working in the Bloater Department and Tower Curing Works

By Tony Brown

I worked at the Bloater Depot in my school holidays around 1956. I remember Geoff Cuthbert and another guy I think his name was Cyril Knowles, he was a bit of a character. I had to stand in the window facing Regent Road stapling the lids onto the boxes of bloaters ready to be sent out. They called this tacking. It was such a boring job so I asked Mr Sutton if I could do something else. He said I could go and work in the fish-house. This was at the rear of the Curing Works on Alma Road, (now part of the Time and Tide Museum. I really enjoyed working there and the guy who ran it was called George. He taught me how to light the oak fires and prepare the herring for smoking and I had to climb up into the smoking towers to hang the herrings and then when they had been done I would climb up and remove them. George was an elderly man then and told me lots of wonderful stories of the past. I spent two summers working there and enjoyed every minute of it.

Tony Brown