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
Landing pilchards in Penzance
The Pilchards of Penzance - pilchards or sardines?
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Overview
The Cornish pilchard fishing industry is an ancient source of income for Cornwall and the South West with Penzance and Newlyn as the main ports. The fish were salted and sold in vast quantities during the 19th Century. With the overfishing of predator fish small pelagic fish populations are returning and a successful marketing campaign to promote Cornish sardines rather than the old-fashioned pilchard has ensured the industry’s survival.
The rebranding of pilchards to ‘Cornish sardines’ make them popular today, and see them back on the menus of many a celebrity chef’s restaurant. First rebranded in 1996 by Nick Howell, the Chairman of the Cornish Sardine Management Association, the name is now under the EU Protected Names Scheme. The UK joined the EU Common Fisheries Policy in 1974 and the industry is managed through a system of quotas set annually.
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