Roach River Oyster Fishery Company Limited - 1913

Beautiful certificate from the Roach River Oyster Fishery Company Limited printed in 1913. This historic document has an ornate header with a vignette depicting an Oyster Smack at sea. This item has the signatures of the Company’s Directors, and Secretary, and is over 98 years old.


Certificate Vignette



The Roach River Oyster Fishery Company was established by an Act of Parliament in 1866. To quote from the Victoria County History: “the company, which has its offices at Burnham, now employs about 140 men and boys. It’s stock of half-ware and brood is about 14,000 tubs each containing from 1, 700 to 2,000 oysters. It has also fifty pits in which its stock is deposited in winter. In 1897 when all Essex oyster fisheries were especially prosperous, the company’s sales exceeded a million and a half, but ordinarily its sales averaged less than a million annually”.

History from Family United Pages.