For centuries, Poole’s fishing fleet caught mullet, herring and sprats in nets, and crabs and lobsters in pots. The industry declined from 1900, but it had a revival during the two world wars when food was scarce.

Sid Wills remembers night-time fishing trips:

“We used to go out say about four o’clock and the first haul was pulled in and brought up and then you’d come home, get home about seven o’ clock in the morning. But then you’d be up at twelve or one and mend the nets for the afternoon, have a beer.”

Cockles

The people of Poole have a long tradition of collecting cockles to eat and sell.

Ledger De La Bald remembers:

“Me parents being me parents, we never went away from Whitecliff without going and picking up a few cockles which we used to do on our hands and knees scraping away at the sand. It used to be great at that time for cockles so we’d always get a good feed.”