Oral History Recording with George Coyde

Digital sound recording in two parts

Subject: Fishing

OHY/6/85/1 - 2.5 GB; 01:55:48
OHY/6/85/2 - 0.5 GB; 00:24:57

George Coyde was born in 1891 in Devon. He spent his life as a fisher working primarily out of the Bristol Channel and his interview describes his time on sailing trawlers before the First World War and steam trawlers afterwards. Of note is his description of the fishing way of life and fishing communities. He talks of fishing families marrying each other, wives knitting clothes, daughters who understood the fisherman’s way of life. Men could be at sea for 10 weeks at a time. He seems to have been a cook and talks about working and living conditions, systems of pay and, of course, what men ate. During the First World War, Coyde served on a minesweeper and says he ended the conflict in Alexandria.

Administrative / biographical background
Oral history with George Coyde conducted by Campbell McMurray