You are here: Home > Museums and heritage > Local history resources > Barking fishing industry

The Barking Fishing Industry

Brief history of the Barking Fishing Fleet

Looking around Barking today, it is hard to believe that the town was once Britain's busiest fishing port. By 1850 at least 220 fishing smacks were operating out of Barking, their crews averaging eight men and boys. This success was overwhelmingly due to the Hewett family, who owned the Short Blue Fleet.

The town was full of businesses supporting the fishing industry, such as shipwrights, mast makers, sail makers, ships' chandlers, water keg makers, pork cask makers, net makers, knitters of fishermen's sweaters, makers of waterproof clothing and boots, and ships' biscuit bakers.

The fishermen and boats of Barking were also regularly employed by the Royal Navy in times of war.

Barking's fishing industry came to an end in the 1860s when the Short Blue Fleet was transferred to Gorleston in Norfolk. The Hewetts retained a ship repair yard at Barking until 1899, when it became the epicentre of a devastating boiler explosion which killed ten people.

Visit the River industries gallery at Valence House Museum to discover more.

Barking Fishing Fleet information sheet

The Town Quay

The Town Quay/Mill Pool is situated on the River Roding approximately two miles north of where the Roding joins the River Thames.

A wharf of some kind must have existed near Barking Abbey from its foundation in 666, as water was then the chief means of transport and communication.

Provisions for the Abbey, corn and meal for the nearby mills, the growing trade of the town, and the local fishing and allied industries were all dependent on the wharf.

When the Barking fishing industry was at its height in the 1840s and 1850s the Town Quay must have been bustling with activity. The Old Granary at the Town Quay was built in 1870, and is all that remains of Barking Mill.