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Eels All Alive O!

1952 , Heybridge Basin (Essex)

Cat no. 1189

The eel industry in Heybridge Basin, Essex

The titles are shown over reflections in water. There are scenes of Heybridge Basin showing boats moored and a man working a lock gate. The camera pans across the basin. There are many boats tied up. There are shots back to the Quay. A car pulls up. An eel boat, The Helene, pulls into the basin. This is a specially built boat. It has a flat bottom and the hold can be filled with fresh water. The crew are visible on board. The trawler ties up by the Quay. Eels are emptied from the hold by net and tipped from the barrel into a holding pool. There are further shots of the basin on a misty day. Inside the hold there are shots of the engines. The Old Ship public house is on the corner of the quay. They are unloaded into barrels on the Quay where they are weighed and loaded into boxes and then onto lorries. One of the boxes is stamped with the name of a wholesaler from Billingsgate. The lorry drives away.

Background Information

Eels spawned in the Sargasso Sea and then swam with the Gulf stream to Europe, arriving at two years old, the size of matchsticks. When fully grown, aged between five and seven years old they attempt to return to the Sargasso Sea and are caught off the coast of Ireland on their way. At Heybridge Basin they were kept in water houses for up to six months, before they were sent to wholesalers and marketed throughout Europe.The 'Helene' was a flat bottomed boat with a perforated hull, allowing the water to flow through to keep the eels alive. She could sail for up to thirty days, travelling to Ireland, Greece and North Africa. (Information by Mr. Kuijten, 1996.)

Manifestations

Eels All Alive O!

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