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        Fish Filletters

        Fishmongers have dogfish over a barrel on Fisheries Quay.

        Amateur film 1912 1 mins Silent

        In partnership with:

        Logo for The Box

        Overview

        A very early Edwardian film taken on Plymouth's Fisheries Quay on the Barbican of fishmongers and young boys filleting dogfish. This is the area of Plymouth's original fish market at Sutton Pool with a new fish market having been built in 1892. Legally children were classed as adults aged twelve and poorer children would forego school to work with their fathers or have found jobs to support their families. This fish is traditionally served as rock salmon.

        In 1870 the Education Act called for a provision of education for all children aged five to eleven, still our primary school system today, but many children did not have the means to attend school. By the 1908 Children's Charter children became classed as minors if they were under the age of fourteen. Plymouth had a thriving fisheries industry and so it is not unusual to see young children working skinning dogfish. A dogfish shark's dorsal spines are coated with venom so skinning is a normal practice. The Fish Market in Plymouth moved to the other side of Sutton Harbour in 1995 and Plymouth with Brixham in Devon and Newlyn in Cornwall retain important fishing fleets.