Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIG
105.
Cockle gatherer at Pen-clawdd around 1948. (Estate of Evan Evans)
The cockle women were well-known figures and had almost a regulation dress for going to market,
with red and black stripes, black and white aprons, grey plaid shawls and flat straw hats with raised brims
on which they carried a wooden pail of cockles. At the same time they carried two large baskets on their
arms.BeforethetrainrantoPen-clawddthewomenusedtowalkthesevenmilesintoSwansea,balancing
the wooden pails on their heads. They walked barefoot to save their shoes and on the outskirts of town
wouldwashtheirfeetandputontheirbootstogointotown.TothisdaythisareaofSwanseaisstillcalled
Olchfa, which means in Welsh 'the washing place'. The arrival of the railway meant that fresh cockles
could be sent greater distances, and women went to lodge in towns to the east of Swansea where they
couldreceivedeliveriesbyrailandthenmarketthem.Atitsheightthecockleindustrywasbothextensive
and complex and contributed significantly to the local economy.
Inthe1920smajordevelopmentstookplaceinthefishery.Firstlythehorse-drawncartwasintroduced
inplaceofthedonkeyandpanniers.Thisenabledanindividualtogatherover520kilogramsperday,four
times as much as previously. Secondly as manufacturing declined in the area men were drawn into the
gathering to collect these enhanced loads and the harvesting of stocks intensified. Together these changes
had such an effect on the cockle beds that in 1921 a minimum landing size was introduced by the South
WalesSeaFisheriesCommitteetoprotectthebreedingstock.Themaincommercialbedscoverlittlemore
than 2.5 square kilometres, a small area compared with the other main cockle fisheries in Britain, so they
cannot support intensive activity. By 1952 so many cockles were being taken that the Committee was
forced to consider setting a limit to control the amount taken in any one day, but it took until 1965 before
the fishery was licensed, to limit the quantity of cockles removed.
