The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free
Video Player is loading.
Cornish Crabmen
Crab catching feeds the local economy with a celebrated delicacy.
In partnership with:
Overview
David Mudd reports on the Carey brothers of Coverack and the craft of making crab pots. The Carey brothers craft 120 to 150 pots each winter ready for the crab catching season which runs from Easter into the autumn. Crabs are sold locally, nationally and internationally and are still a regular feature on menus in the South West. Traditional Cornish pots are made from willow with a nine inch mouth opening for crabs and six inches for a lobster.
Withy pot-making is still alive in Cornwall but the industry now uses plastic and steel pots. There are recognisable regional differences in the pot weave with Cornish pots being flatter than Devon or Dorset equivalents. The inkwell pot is dome-shaped and the crustacea enter from the top of the pot. The parlour pot is rectangular and more for lobsters. About 20,000 tonnes of edible or brown crab are landed in the UK annually and 70% of the catch is exported live. The film Born of the Sea (1949) was made in Coverack and used local fishermen as extras. The small coastal community on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall suffered from devastating flash floods in 2017.
Related
Watch for free
Coverack Lifeboat Station Coverack Lifeboat Station
News 1965 4 mins Location: Coverack
The Coverack RNLI station is proud to have broken even.
Watch for free
New Perspectives: Pusher New Perspectives: Pusher
Short documentary 2025 5 mins
Noah Bell of Northumbria University explains why you should seize the chance to watch Nicolas Winding Refn's debut.
Watch for free
Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan on working with David Lynch - Q&A Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan on working with David Lynch - Q&A
Inside Film 2025 38 mins
Kyle MacLachlan talks to BFI CEO Ben Roberts about working with David Lynch on the legendary series Twin Peaks.
Watch for free
On Falling - Exclusive Q&A On Falling - Exclusive Q&A
Inside Film 2025 30 mins
Writer-director Laura Carreira talks to Nia Childs about her debut feature, On Falling.
Watch for free
Layla - Exclusive Q&A Layla - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2025 27 mins
Writer, director and performer Amrou Al-Kadhi talks to Rico Johnson-Sinclair about their debut feature.
Watch for free
All We Imagine As Light - Exclusive Q&A All We Imagine As Light - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2025 28 mins
Payal Kapadia discusses her Cannes prize-winning and Bafta-nominated drama with Ashanti Omkar.
Watch for free
Khichdi Khichdi
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2023 16 mins
The interwoven stories of four best friends who reunite in the UK, thirty-five years after training together as nurses during their teens in Ferozepur, Punjab.