"My mother was a Craven, one of the Conwy fishing families. I think they came from Blackpool originally, so fishing has always been in my blood.
The mussel season starts at the end of September. There are about 20 licence holders in Conwy who go out in their own boats with rakes with long handles to pick up the mussels from the deepest water to get the best quality mussels because they've always been submerged in the water and so been feeding all the time.
Then they get put in the purification tanks for two days before being packaged and sent to market in England.
You do get pearls in mussels, but only very small, soft ones. They're not very valuable. It has always been said though that there's a pearl from a Conwy mussel in the Crown Jewels, but it could be one from the freshwater mussels you used to get higher up the river. They'd have been a different species of mussel to the ones we fish for.
They're very, very scarce now. I don't know if there are any left - there are protection orders on freshwater mussels now and you're not allowed to fish for pearls.
In the winter we process the mussels and in the summer we clean out the building and open a mussel fishing museum for tourists. We leave the machinery and the tanks for people to see and we have information on the history of mussel fishing in the area.
The industry goes back hundreds of years, to very old times, though they didn't eat the mussels then. They used to stamp on them to get the pearls out of the shells and feed the rest to the chickens!
Mussels have been sold at market as food for about 80 or 90 years. They used to go to market by train but now they go by road.
I like them boiled in the shell. You have to steam them to get the fish out of the shell and then I like them fried in a pan with bacon. But lots have them in the shell with wine and garlic these days, which is quite nice too."
your comments
Phil Wood, Stockport
When we were kids mussels were a regular meal. Mother would boil up a large pan and deposit it in the middle of the table, we each had a saucer of vinegar with salt and pepper and that was it. Fabulous fare! Conwy mussels must be the best on the planet, by a country mile. Keep up the good work.
Mon Jan 19 09:30:04 2009
john hooley st helens
bought my first bag of mussels from conwy oct 2007 they where the biggest and best i have ever tasted. i buy mussels local and when i go abroad on hols and have them for starters but with conwy mussels you don't need a main meal they are so big. you will not be disappointed. gorgeous.
Mon Sep 8 10:07:47 2008
george hughes chester
i am a conwy boy - my dad was cadi hughes, member of the hughes clan. i went musseling with my dad some 60 years ago and i cant begin to tell you how hard the work was. i have some wonderful memories of a great little town and some good people including the cravens, rimmers hughes, s. smiths and the jones's, also the good singalongs in the liverpool arms and the blue bell.
Tue Aug 26 11:10:38 2008
eric craven
i spent many a day with my dad mussel picking on the morfar beds. we would start at 4 am and it was hard cold most day but great times
Mon Apr 14 10:21:17 2008
Clifford Craven conwy
eric craven was my grandfather and i'm glad to say the tradition of mussel gathering is still in the family. my brother and i have both held permits to fish for mussels but i have not renewed it. But my brother still fishes for them and does so using the rake - very hard work but very enjoyable.
Mon Nov 19 10:53:00 2007
Gwynfryn Williams, Perth Australia
In the late 1950's I spent one day picking mussels with Eric Craven, on the mussel beds at the Conwy river estuary, at low tide. The rowing boats the mussel gatherers used were large, and they used the outgoing tide to get to the banks, and the incoming tide to get to the purification tanks. It was hard work, and the hours were long. I'm glad to read that the tradition is continuing.
Fri Feb 23 09:20:05 2007
Michael J Hughes (Jonno)
Glad to read about the mussel men of Conwy, for many years I have family and friends work the river. They deserve full credit for there hard work raking in mussels in freezing conditions when most are tucked up in bed. I just hope all stays well and Europe doesn't interfere with our local tradition.
Mon Jul 24 10:07:39 2006
