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Sizewell and Dunwich

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About Aldeburgh

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Seaspiracy

Directed by

Ali Tabrizi

Produced by
Kip Andersen

Cinematography

Edited by

Music by

Benjamin Sturley

A.U.M. Films

Disrupt Studios

Distributed by
Netflix

89 minutes

Language

English

Seaspiracy () is a 2021 documentary film about the environmental impact of fishing directed by and starring Ali Tabrizi, a British filmmaker. The film examines human impacts on marine life and advocates for ending fish consumption.

The film explores environmental issues affecting oceans, including plastic pollution, ghost nets and overfishing, and argues that commercial fisheries are the main driver of marine ecosystem destruction. The film rejects the concept of sustainable fishing and criticises several marine conservation organisations, including the Earth Island Institute and its dolphin safe label and the sustainable seafood certifications of the Marine Stewardship Council. It also criticises efforts by organisations to reduce household plastic, contrasting their impact with that of ghost nets. It accuses these initiatives of being a cover-up for the environmental impact of fishing and corruption in the fishing industry. Seaspiracy concludes by supporting marine reserves and for ending fish consumption.

The film was produced by Kip Andersen, director of the documentary and used the same production team as this previous film. Initial financial support was provided by British entrepreneur Dale Vince, and it was acquired by Netflix in 2020.

The film premiered on Netflix globally in March 2021 and garnered immediate attention in several countries. The film received mixed reviews; reviewers praised it for bringing attention to its subject matter, but it was accused of scientific inaccuracy and was criticised by some ocean experts. Organisations and individuals interviewed or negatively portrayed in the film disputed its assertions and accused the film of misrepresenting them. Seaspiracy also prompted responses from other environmental organisations, academics and seafood industry groups, and several media outlets fact-checked the veracity of certain statements in the film.

Tabrizi acts as both the narrator and protagonist of the film, discovering key pieces of information at the same moment as the viewer. This framing device serves to provide narrative momentum and suspense. The film centers early on the collapse of whale, shark, dolphin and sea turtle populations. The film asserts that the focus of environmental groups on comparatively small consumer plastics like straws has obfuscated the larger problem of plastic waste from fishing gear, or ghost nets, as well as the devastation of bycatch. The film also suggests environmental organizations have been unable to define or effectively implement sustainable fishing, sustainable seafood or dolphin-safe products. These criticisms are particularly focused on the Marine Stewardship Council, the Earth Island Institute and the Plastic Pollution Coalition.

The film's settings are global, including the Taiji dolphin drive hunt in southern Japan, whaling in the Faroe Islands, Thai and Chinese fish markets, coastal West Africa, and salmon aquaculture farms in Scotland. At various moments, Tabrizi and his crew appear to face imminent peril from local authorities or corrupt fishing industry players; some of the action is presented through hidden camera techniques, and animation is used to depict scenes of violence. Activities of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society-an American conservation group focused on direct action at sea-feature prominently in the film, including an extended section documenting illegal fishing practices and worker exploitation in Liberian waters. The film also includes an investigation into modern slavery conditions on Thai fishing vessels, and interviews several survivors.

That the cessation of fish consumption is the solution to collapsing fish stocks and human exploitation remains a consistent message throughout the film. Statistics repeatedly buttress this point, including various fish species listed at >90% wild population loss, and the claim that global oceans could be essentially devoid of fish by 2048. The possibility of fish farming aquaculture is introduced, only to be dismissed after a trip to Scotland. The film suggests the problem of feed for farmed fish as well as the prevalence of disease and coastal degradation make aquaculture untenable.

Seaspiracy received production support and initial funding by British renewable energy entrepreneur Dale Vince after meeting Cowspiracy director Kip Anderson in 2016. The same production team was used as this previous film. Ali Tabrizi had previously directed a film called Vegan in 2018. Seaspiracy was acquired by Netflix in 2020 and released on the platform on March 24, 2021.

The documentary was one of the top ten most watched films on Netflix in several countries in the week of its release and generated significant traction on social media.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 75% based on 8 critic reviews, and an average rating of 7.7/10.

Natalia Winkelman of The New York Times gave a mixed-to-negative review, concluding that the film "does present some pieces of reporting - including an inquiry into dolphin-safe tuna can labels - that are surprising and memorable. But even the film's notable points seem to emerge only briefly before sinking beneath the surface, lost in a sea of murky conspiratorial thinking."

Aswathi Pacha also reviewed the film negatively in , citing concerns over its scientific veracity and accusations of misrepresentation from participants.

Liz Allen of was also critical of the film, writing "While perhaps produced with good intentions, Seaspiracy fails to provide a critical lens to the problems it unveils".

John Serba of Decider said, " Seaspiracy isn't the purest form of documentary journalism, but Tabrizi makes his point with enough principled persuasion to make it worth your time," while also questioning its tone, saying "some of the fishing industry's troublesome ethical quandaries occur in the shadows, but to call its corrupt elements conspiratorial is almost pointlessly sensational". The Independent rated it 4 out of 5 stars and called it a "shocking indictment of the commercial fishing industry".

Emma Stefanski of said, "If shock and awe are what it takes to get the message across, then Seaspiracy is effective, if not particularly multifaceted."

Common Sense Media gave the film a 4 out of 5 stars and 15+ rating, calling it "tough but necessary viewing" and "backed with evidence from journalists, authors, marine biologists, oceanographers, frontline activists, and industry insiders". It questions the use of director Ali Tabrizi as protagonist to be followed around.

Writing for the American socialist publication , Spencer Roberts says that the film "is not without its faults. Its interview style is abrasive. It has excessive animation. It makes a couple of statistical misinterpretations and several oversimplifications. Yet the film is mainly accurate and devastatingly detailed." Addressing the disputes over its scientific accuracy, he says "[i]t's fair to say that Seaspiracy cited some studies that can be considered dated or disputed, but it also left out some of the most harrowing statistics published in recent years", including the bycatch of 8.5 million sea turtles from 1990 to 2008, total fish hauls peaking in 1996, and perhaps 25% of all fishing ships using forced labor.

PETA wrote the movie "is not to be missed" and encouraged readers to host watch parties.

In 2022, the film won PETA's Oscat award for best picture.

Greenpeace commended the film for promoting various marine issues, but challenged the conclusion of abstaining from fish consumption, distinguishing between industrial fishing and traditional harvesting. Greenpeace instead suggested alternate solutions. A representative of Fauna and Flora International wrote that the film has "bitterly divided the environmental community" and described its interpretation of scientific studies as "highly problematic and often woefully misleading." Although also questioning its "western-centric and absolutist perspective", it accepted that it was "broadly right on some central issues... with significant caveats".

Charles Clover of Blue Marine Foundation and author of the book The End of the Line criticised the film's scientific accuracy, saying "there are a few jaw-dropping factual errors" such as its framing of whale strandings. He said such strandings have a variety of causes other than plastic pollution alone, and accused Seaspiracy of deriving its narrative from previous documentaries, such as the film adaptation of his book. Nonetheless, he praised its communication of marine fisheries and conservation issues to a new audience, stating "[t]he problem of overfishing is immense, global, remote, horrifying and it is really hard to get people to focus on. Until now, Tabrizi's generation thought banning plastic straws was more important. But it isn't. Overfishing is." Although he found a "lot to admire" in the film's criticisms of the fishing industry and sustainable seafood certification organisations, he called the film's conclusion of not eating fish "thoroughly unsatisfactory".

Environmental journalism outlets (a publication of ) and Hakai Magazine both gave negative reviews. They both criticised the film for suggesting that previous media had not covered the facts discussed in the film, and questioned its tone and accuracy. A reviewer in Hakai Magazine wrote, "had Tabrizi looked at any of these issues in greater depth, he'd have found that journalists have been covering these sorts of stories for years and have not glossed over the nuance."

Internal documents leaked before the film's release authored by the National Fisheries Institute, a trade group representing the US seafood industry, revealed a new media strategy to protect the fishing industry and to characterize the then-unreleased documentary as a "dishonest attack". The National Fisheries Institute appealed to Netflix ahead of the film's release to "distinguish between legitimate documentaries and propaganda", stating "audiences will not recognize the film's true agenda [as] a vegan indoctrination movie".

After the movie was released, a spokesperson for Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) said the film's coverage of Scottish salmon aquaculture was "wrong, misleading and inaccurate". The Global Aquaculture Alliance also criticised the film, saying "reputable NGOs have worked tirelessly with industry over the past 20-plus years to continually improve the lives of the people working in aquaculture and fisheries as well as the ecosystems in which aquaculture and fisheries are practiced", and suggested abandoning fisheries and aquaculture would "abandon the approximately 250 million people employed by the industry and rob billions of people of a healthful source of protein".

Bryce Stewart, a University of York marine ecologist and fisheries biologist, criticised the film's scientific accuracy and neutrality, calling it "the worst kind of journalism" and questioning its lack of coverage of the impacts of climate change on oceans. He said that "the biggest error is to say that sustainable fisheries don't exist. This is like saying that sustainable agriculture doesn't exist. All food production systems have an impact on the natural world, but obviously some more than others." He acknowledged "the movie was right to highlight overfishing as the biggest current threat to marine biodiversity. This is widely accepted by scientists and the evidence for this is very strong".

Daniel Pauly, project leader of the Sea Around Us project at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia, wrote in Vox that the documentary "make[s] the important point that industrial fishing is... a too often out-of-control, sometimes criminal enterprise that needs to be reined in and regulated." However, he said it also "undermines [its message] with an avalanche of falsehoods", citing its coverage of marine debris, bycatch and sustainable fishing, as well as "blames the ocean conservation community, i.e., the very NGOs trying to fix things, rather than the industrial companies actually causing the problem".

In an article in Nature Ecology and Evolution, Dyhia Belhabib criticised the film's conclusion of ending fish consumption, calling this "embedded in white privilege and colonialism" and "[ignoring] that more than 90% of the global fishing effort is small-scale and coastal in nature". She proposed management solutions and decolonisation of ocean science and advocacy.

The Marine Stewardship Council, Earth Island Institute and Plastic Pollution Coalition disputed their negative portrayal in the documentary, and suggested that their representatives' comments were cherry-picked. Oceana disputed the statement that they receive funding from the seafood industry. Christina Hicks, an academic at Lancaster University and James Cook University who appeared in the film, did not endorse it. She said she committed her career to the fishing industry, in which "there are issues but also progress and fish remain critical to food and nutrition security in many vulnerable geographies". However, The Guardian columnist George Monbiot expressed his support for the film and its message. While acknowledging some inaccuracies, Monbiot says that the main point of the film is correct: the fishing industry is the greatest cause of the ecological destruction of the oceans, and cites the 2019 IPBES report as evidence to back this assertion. The marine conservation biologist Callum Roberts from the University of Exeter also argued against criticism. He said "my colleagues may rue the statistics, but the basic thrust of it is we are doing a huge amount of damage to the ocean and that's true. At some point you run out. Whether it's 2048 or 2079, the question is: 'Is the trajectory in the wrong direction or the right direction?'"

In Seaspiracy, narrator Tabrizi criticises a public focus on plastic straws, stating that they only account for 0.03% of ocean plastic. He contrasts this with fishing nets, saying they make up 46% of the Great Pacific garbage patch. The fishing net statement derives from a 2018 study, which examines floating marine debris by weight. The study found that at least 46% of floating plastic in the Great Pacific garbage patch came from fishing nets.

According to the BBC News fact check, the share of plastic straws in ocean plastic (0.03%) seems to be calculated using numbers from two studies. One study is on plastic straws on coastlines, the other on floating marine plastic in the Great Pacific garbage patch. The fact check cites Jenna Jambeck, the author of the coastline study, saying "no-one really knows how much of it is straws, but experts agree that it is certainly a lot less than dumped fishing gear." The author of the latter study on the Great Pacific garbage patch, is quoted as saying "[fishing gear] fragments much more slowly and is also very buoyant; prime candidates to hang around in the GPGP", as opposed to thinner plastics like straws and bags, which disintegrate and sink.

An article in concluded that the film's focus on the Great Pacific garbage patch was "misleading", as this region of the ocean accumulates buoyant plastics and therefore "does not provide a particularly accurate depiction of the marine plastic in the entire ocean overall".

The film says that a leading fisheries expert found "that if current fishing trends continue, we will see virtually empty oceans by the year 2048."

This prediction originates from the conclusion section of a 2006 study by a team of marine ecologists led by Dr. Boris Worm published in Science. In the final paragraphs of the study, the authors extrapolated from the percentage of fisheries that have already collapsed and predicted that 32 years later, no more fish would be caught in the ocean. When interviewed for the BBC fact-check article about Seaspiracy in 2021, Worm said, "the 2006 paper is now 15 years old and most of the data in it is almost 20 years old. Since then, we have seen increasing efforts in many regions to rebuild depleted fish populations". The BBC also noted that other experts had taken issue with the original 2006 study.

The film criticises dolphin safe labels on tuna and says that "the internationally recognized seafood label was a complete fabrication since it guaranteed nothing". This is in response to Mark Palmer, associate director of the International Marine Mammal Project of the Earth Island Institute, who says on camera that "dolphin safe" tuna cannot be guaranteed, and that observers can be bribed. Palmer has accused the documentary of taking him out of context.

Senior fisheries scientist Sara McDonald of the Monterey Bay Aquarium was quoted by Newsweek in a Seaspiracy fact check article: "The U.S. dolphin-safe program has been very effective. Dolphin mortality in the 1980s was 130,000. In 2018, there were 819 documented deaths." However, a representative of the Natural Resources Defense Council stated that although "the U.S. laws are good if everyone is being honest, that doesn't mean nothing ever gets in. [Law enforcement] can't catch it all." Newsweek's fact-check article concluded that dolphin safe labels cannot guarantee that no dolphins are harmed during fishing.

1. "Faut-il cesser de manger du poisson?". Le Devoir (in French). March 27, 2021. Avec ce documentaire, tourné dans plusieurs régions maritimes du globe, le réalisateur Ali Tabrizi cherche donc à mettre en lumière ce qu'il considère comme un aveuglement collectif face à la dégradation des écosystèmes marins. Et pour lui, il ne fait aucun doute que les pêcheries commerciales sont le principal moteur de destruction de ces milieux naturels, qui sont le fruit de centaines de millions d'années d'évolution.

2. ^ "Seaspiracy, il lato oscuro della pesca". La Stampa (in Italian). March 26, 2021. La tesi di "Seaspiracy è che non c'è grigio e bianco, appunto, ma solo riserve marine e smettere di mangiare pesce, di tutti i tipi.

3. ^

4. ^

5. ^ Berlatsky, Noah (March 23, 2021). "'Seaspiracy' Explores the Need for Systemic Change to Save Our Oceans". The Progressive.

6. ^

7. ^ McEachern, Megan (April 20, 2021). "Seaspiracy facts challenged by Scottish fish farming organisations as documentary controversy continues". The Sunday Post.

8. ^ Pacha, Aswathi (April 3, 2021). "'Seaspiracy' review: Fact and fiction meet fish in controversial Netflix documentary". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X.

9. ^ Wallace, Bryan P.; Lewison, Rebecca L.; et al. (2010). "Global patterns of marine turtle bycatch". Conservation Letters. 3 (3): 131-142. doi:10.1111/j.1755-263X.2010.00105.x. S2CID 2639284.

10. ^ Pauly, Daniel; Zeller, Dirk (2016). "Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining". Nature Communications. 7 (10244): 10244. Bibcode:2016NatCo...710244P. doi:10.1038/ncomms10244. PMC 4735634. PMID 26784963.

11. ^ McDonald, Gavin G.; Costello, Christopher; et al. (2021). "Satellites can reveal global extent of forced labor in the world's fishing fleet". PNAS. 118 (3): e2016238117. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11820162M. doi:10.1073/pnas.2016238117. PMC 7826370. PMID 33431679. S2CID 231586627.

12. ^ Vlessing, Etan (March 17, 2022). "Zendaya, 'The Lost Daughter,' 'Candyman' Among PETA Oscat Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. The best picture Oscat went to Seaspiracy, Netflix's documentary by director Ali Tabrizi about the devastation the fishing industry has brought to marine animals and ecosystems.

13. ^ Belhabib, Dyhia (May 12, 2021). "Ocean science and advocacy work better when decolonized". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 5 (6): 709-710. doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01477-1. ISSN 2397-334X. PMID 33981027.

14. ^

15. ^ Horton, Helena (March 31, 2021). "Netflix documentary Seaspiracy under fire from scientists". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022.

16. ^ Lebreton, L.; Slat, B.; Ferrari, F.; Sainte-Rose, B.; Aitken, J.; Marthouse, R.; Hajbane, S.; Cunsolo, S.; Schwarz, A.; Levivier, A.; Noble, K. (March 22, 2018). "Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic". Scientific Reports. 8 (1): 4666. Bibcode:2018NatSR...8.4666L. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22939-w. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5864935. PMID 29568057. Over three-quarters of the GPGP mass was carried by debris larger than 5 cm and at least 46% was comprised of fishing nets.

17. Worm, Boris (2006). "Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services". Science. 314 (5800): 787-790. Bibcode:2006Sci...314..787W. doi:10.1126/science.1132294. PMID 17082450. S2CID 37235806. Conclusions. Positive relationships between diversity and ecosystem functions and services were found using experimental (Fig. 1) and correlative approaches along trajectories of diversity loss (Figs. 2 and 3) and recovery (Fig. 4). Our data highlight the societal consequences of an ongoing erosion of diversity that appears to be accelerating on a global scale (Fig. 3A). This trend is of serious concern because it projects the global collapse of all taxa currently fished by the mid-21st century (based on the extrapolation of regression in Fig. 3A to 100% in the year 2048).

18. ^ "Seaspiracy Facts".

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Seaspiracy Directed by Ali Tabrizi Produced by Kip Andersen Cinematography Edited by Music by Benjamin Sturley A.U.M. Films Disrupt Studios Distributed by Netflix 89 minutes Language English Seaspiracy () is a 2021 documentary film about the environmental impact of fishing directed by and starring Ali Tabrizi, a British filmmaker.

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Check out all the facts from Netflix's Seaspiracy, with time codes to give you all the information you need to save the seas.

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A Netflix documentary about the impact of commercial fishing has attracted celebrity endorsements and plaudits from fans with its damning picture of the harm the industry does to ocean life. But NGOs, sustainability labels and experts quoted in Seaspiracy have accused the film-makers of making "misleading claims", using out-of-context interviews and erroneous statistics.

Seaspiracy, made by the team behind the award-winning 2014 film Cowspiracy, which was backed by Leonardo DiCaprio, pours doubt on the idea of sustainable fishing, shines a spotlight on the aquaculture industry and introduces the notion of "blood shrimp", seafood tainted with slave labour and human rights abuses.

Launched last week, the 90-minute film is already trending on the platform as one of its Top 10 most watched films and programmes and has been praised by celebrities including Bryan Adams, the vegan Canadian rock star, who urged his followers to watch it and stop eating fish. Chris Froome, the seven Grand Tour-winning British cyclist, tweeted that "my mind has been blown" by the film. George Monbiot, the environmentalist and Guardian columnist, who appears in it, described it on Twitter as "a brilliant exposé of the greatest threat to marine life: fishing".

Directed by Ali Tabrizi, a film-maker from Kent, the wide-ranging documentary questions the sustainable seafood movement and looks at the way the Dolphin Safe and Marine Stewardship Council labels may not be able to provide the assurances consumers are looking for.

Representatives of both organisations have accused the film-makers of misleading statements.

An executive with the international organisation responsible for the Dolphin Safe tuna label, Mark Palmer, has said his comments were taken out of context.

In a scene in the film, Palmer, the associate US director of the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP), which is operated by the Earth Island Institute, was asked if his group could guarantee that no dolphins were ever killed in any tuna fishery anywhere in the world.

"I answered there are no guarantees in life but that drastically reducing the number of vessels intentionally chasing and netting dolphins as well as other regulations in place, that the number of dolphins that are killed is very low", he said.

"The film took my statement out of context to suggest that there is no oversight and we don't know whether dolphins are being killed. That is not true."

In response to the film, the IMMP said Seaspiracy "falsely claims" that the Dolphin Safe label is a conspiracy to benefit the global fisheries industries.

David Phillips, the director of the IMMP, said the film had chosen to "grossly distort and mischaracterise" the aims of the label. In a statement, Phillips said: "The Dolphin Safe tuna programme is responsible for the largest decline in dolphin deaths by tuna fishing vessels in history. Dolphin-kill levels have been reduced by more than 95%, preventing the indiscriminate slaughter of more than 100,000 dolphins every year."

Phillips said Seaspiracy did a disservice to organisations doing "critical work to protect oceans and marine life".

Prof Christina Hicks, an environmental social scientist at Lancaster University who was interviewed for the film, tweeted: "Unnerving to discover your cameo in a film slamming an industry you love and have committed your career to."

A spokesperson for the Marine Stewardship Council said that while the film drew attention to "known problems" in the fishing industry, it included "misleading claims" including that there is no such thing as sustainable fishing and that MSC certification was not credible.

"Some of the known problems that the film highlights - bycatch, overfishing and destruction of marine ecosystems - are precisely the issues the MSC certification process is designed to address," a spokesperson said.

"The positive impact of our programme has been recognised by the United Nations, as being important in helping to support ocean biodiversity. Fisheries that ask to go through an MSC assessment work hard to reach the verifiable and science-based standards we set, ensuring that fish stocks are conserved for future generations."

Critics also argue one of the most shocking statistics quoted in the film is wrong. A stark prediction, from a 2006 study, that "the ocean will be empty by 2048" included in the documentary has been contradicted by the forecast's author.

Oceana, an NGO campaigning for ocean protection, claimed it was misrepresented in the film, because an interview with a former Oceana staffer appeared to suggest it did not have a definition for sustainability. In a statement, Oceana said: "Choosing to abstain from consuming seafood is not a realistic choice for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who depend on coastal fisheries - many of whom are also facing poverty, hunger and malnutrition."

However, Prof Callum Roberts, a marine conservationist at the University of Exeter, also quoted in Seaspiracy, but has not yet seen it, disagreed with its critics. He said: "It's not been made for its scientific rigour. It has used the techniques of film storytelling to make its case.

"My colleagues may rue the statistics, but the basic thrust of it is we are doing a huge amount of damage to the ocean and that's true. At some point you run out. Whether it's 2048 or 2079, the question is: 'Is the trajectory in the wrong direction or the right direction?'"

In response, Tabrizi said he had approached the MSC for interview but it had declined. He said: "The renowned marine scientists Dr Sylvia Earle and Prof Callum Roberts, who expose the failure of sustainable fishing in the film, explain how the term 'sustainable' is so vague that even bycatch of seabirds, dolphins and seals can be considered sustainable. This is not what consumers think of when they pick up a fillet of fish with the MSC blue tick."

He denied allegations Palmer's comments were taken out of context or that the film mischaracterised or distorted the aims of the label.

"We did not claim in the film that the Dolphin Safe label is a conspiracy to benefit global fisheries industries. We asked if they could guarantee 'Dolphin Safe' tuna is in fact dolphin safe, to which Mark Palmer replied that they could not guarantee it, and that their observers, who oversee these fishing vessels some of the time, can be bribed."

"The label does not say 95% dolphin safe. It claims to be dolphin safe. In the words of Mark Palmer himself, 'one dolphin and you're out'. This wasn't taken out of context."

Tabrizi said he was grateful for Hicks's contribution and it was a "shame" she felt the way she did, but said it was "unrealistic" to expect everyone to align with the film's conclusions.

He said he did not expect people who were facing poverty, hunger and malnutrition around the world to reduce or eliminate their fish consumption and that these were not the people looking on Oceana's website for advice on sustainability.

Responding to the use of the 2048 statistic, he said: "We are not scientists nor did we claim to be. Despite there being some confusion about this particular projection, the overall state of fisheries are in severe decline."

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Seaspiracy: Netflix documentary accused of misrepresentation by participants

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A Netflix documentary about the impact of commercial fishing has attracted celebrity endorsements and plaudits from fans with its damning picture of the harm the industry does to ocean life. But NGOs, sustainability labels and experts quoted in Seaspiracy have accused the film-makers of making "misleading claims", using out-of-context interviews and erroneous statistics.

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Politicians haven't delivered on Brexit promises, leaving fishers feeling betrayed and lied to

Last week, fish and seafood exporters protested in London against the ​'Brexit trade deal'. While a no-deal would have been the final nail in the coffin for the struggling industry, this trade agreement, as we predicted, does not live up to the expectations of UK fishers.

NEF has shown that not all fishers are in the same boat, with a large part of the fleet at risk due to a reliance on shellfish exports to the EU and a small group of quota-owners with large potential gains from Brexit. As it stands, out of the potential winners and losers of Brexit, no one actually wins. Exporters and inshore fishers in particular are bearing the brunt whilst also leaving the biggest UK fish market looking like a ghost town.

Brexit was sold to the public by politicians and parts of the fishing industry as a​' sea of opportunity'; a message that captured the media narrative. There were promises of thousands of tonnes of additional quota, exclusive access to the 6 - 12nm territorial seas, and the taking back control of the 12 - 200nm limit while excluding EU vessels unless they fished on UK terms.

Beyond that, fishers were told trade would not be impacted and the EU market they so heavily rely on would still be available on the same terms. As recent events have shown, this hasn't happened and the government's broken commitments are exposed.

In fact, the deal grants EU vessels continued access to the 6 - 12nm limit, despite this being a ​'UK red line' in negotiations and the most important issue for the inshore fleet in England. This also means there will be little change regarding access to the whole Exclusive Economic Zone, an issue for the larger scale fleet segments accessing grounds in the North Sea, Western approaches and Celtic Sea.

There is an increase in the UK quota share over the next five and a half years, but most of the gains are for a small number stocks and will only benefit certain parts of the fishing industry. Even these quota gains are marginal and nowhere near the promises made pre referendum, something all fishing organisations now seem to agree on.

As well, quota increases are not uniform across all species and areas. The increases are mainly for the high-volume pelagic mackerel, herring and Norway pout stocks (fished by the largest scale and most profitable part of the industry), with some increases in Celtic Sea haddock stock and North Sea hake and sole. Beneficiaries will be in certain ports and parts of the fishing fleet, with the most symbolic stocks not changing at all. The biggest percentage increases in cod touted for Scotland are actually so low in absolute terms, it's not enough to be viable as a fishery. This political failure combined with the capitulation on the promise of an exclusive 6 - 12nm limit shows how far the rhetoric and jingoism was from reality.

The UK fleet will also miss out on the EU subsidies going forward, a €6.4 billion fund which would have been much larger with the UK still in the EU. Despite the government's £100m announcement to rebuild Britain's fishing fleet, it's not clear that the current situation is looking any better than the EU Common Fisheries Policy for many UK fishers.

Speaking to and hearing from fishermen in Scotland and England over the last few weeks, they feel betrayed and lied to. They backed Brexit in good faith with the expectation of big changes, they even championed the cause and became poster boys for the campaign. But politicians haven't delivered, and fishers have been dropped in an even worse situation with callous indifference.

Despite Dominic Raab's denial that these seafood businesses are facing collapse because of Brexit, Boris Johnson is willing to pay compensation, to the tune of £23 million - perhaps an admission that the sector has been handed a very raw deal. A key problem now for the UK is that the aspirations of the Fisheries White Paper, and the Fisheries Act were dependant on a more favourable, but clearly undeliverable Brexit deal. Going forward, there are a few key opportunities for government to support the sector.

Firstly, the White Paper showed a commitment to trying to reduce the environmental impact of fishing, and rewarding and incentivising ​'low impact fishing'. Using the small amount of new quota as incentives for low impact fishing could still happen, although the nature of the quota gains means the scope to do this in a meaningful way is very limited. NEF have pioneered an approach to develop the criteria to define low impact fishing, run a project for Defra co-designing a definition for low impact fishing with the industry, and will be pushing to ensure that the small gains are fairly distributed to help low impact inshore fishers.

And secondly, with the industry under the spotlight and Covid-19 boosting public support for our key workers, we should also be looking to improve the industry and supply chain: making jobs better, safer and more appealing, and ensuring fairer pay for migrant fishers working in the offshore fishing sector.

A just transition in UK fisheries, focussed on moving the industry towards better working conditions, more value captured for the small-scale producers and lowering the environmental impacts across the fleet, is now the only light on the horizon.

You can hear more from the fishermen on their views here.

Image: Unsplash

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Politicians haven't delivered on Brexit promises, leaving fishers feeling betrayed and lied to Last week, fish and seafood exporters protested in London against the ​'Brexit trade deal'. While a no-deal would have been the final nail in the coffin for the struggling industry, this trade agreement, as we predicted, does not live up to the expectations of UK fishers.

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Raising awareness is important but this documentary failed to get the narrative and facts right

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Tales from English Folklore #6: The Wild Man of Orford

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The name "Aldeburgh" derives from the Old English ald (old) and burh (fortification), although this structure, along with much of the Tudor town, has now been lost to the sea. In the 16th century, Aldeburgh was a leading port and had a flourishing shipbuilding industry. Aldeburgh's importance as a port declined as the River Alde silted up and larger ships could no longer berth. It survived mainly on fishing until the 19th century, when it also became a seaside resort. As a tourist town it has a thriving artistic as well as festival tradition on which some of my work draws.

Aldeburgh is 'on the edge' in a number of ways:

geographically it is extremely vulnerable to encroachment of the sea. Half the land originally occupied by Aldeburgh in the middle ages has now disappeared through both gradual erosion and storm disasters. The sea is currently held at bay with barriers and groynes, but the area is threatened in the longer term by global warming.

to the North the skyline is dominated by Sizewell nuclear power station - with periodic leaks though none so far serious. The current strategic government focus on nuclear energy and likely development of the new nuclear power station at Sizewell C will lead to profound ecological and economic changes.

'Edges Found' is a series of imaginative 'tales' developed from Found images from sources like the flint stonework of the Moot Hall, rusty tractors, wooden boards propped outside fish houses and nets lying on the beach inspire a range of imaginary and 'truth' narratives. 'Moot Tales' develops texture snapshots in Procreate on my iPad as historical imaginings, Suffolk Folk Tales about mermaids and sea monsters, well-known poems and uncertain futures. The aim is to retain enough fidelity to the original textures to be intriguing, but manipulated enough to create a meaningful narrative that provokes questions about life in Aldeburgh, and more generally.

The main focus of this SYP project is a series of illustrated books and single image that develop narratives from iPad photographs of found textures in Procreate.

Rust Poems : images of rust on an old tractor on Aldeburgh beach reworked to illustrate three erasure found poems :

Poem 1: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1818

Poem 2: Kubla Khan excepts from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1797

Poem 3: Crow's Theology, excerpts from 'Crow by Ted Hughes 1966-69

A Mermaid's Tale: an imagined version of local mermaid and wild man tales based on found images in old wooden boards propped up around the fish houses.

Moot Histories is based on photographs of flint stonework on the Moot Hall. The narrative started started by selecting and photographing portions of stone that had interesting shapes and textures with lines and translucency that suggested stories relevant to Aldeburgh - the sea, boats, storms, people and faces. These were then further worked to create imagined versions of the past based on information about Aldeburgh in the past from books and on-line websites.

Edgescapes : Photography and Photo screen images of seascapes, people, shingle flotsam and urban scenes. sections of old boats lying on Aldeburgh beach.

The main source of inspiration were the textures themselves, some of which were presented as selected single illustrations for assessment in Illustration 2. But these have been significantly reworked to create the narratives compiled as books in InDesign for SYP, with many new images added, coupled with background reading and research. The narratives also draw on video, life sketching and documentary photography in Aldeburgh since 2016 that informed the sorts of issues relevant to the place, and also the types of topics likely to be interesting to the local tourist market. This was important for me to make decisions on how the images could be developed while still fulfilling the requirements of my Manifesto and wider work. The style also draws on 'Reflections in Grey' about a Lockdown stay in Aldeburgh for VCAP.

Full resolution book page spreads and images have been uploaded to my SMUGMUG website with shop. The padlet below gives links to the books and images, together with links to research, inspiration and pdf overview of the development process and narrative issues.

Background work: Previous projects Reportage Sketchbooks

Aldeburgh is a very good place for sketching people. A key regular element in my practice going forward will be sketching of people in locations along the derives together with notes on conversations as the basis for developing narratives. Some very preliminary rapid sketches together with supporting photos and video clips are being developed into more considered drawings in different media for Illustration Sketchbooks Assignment 3 (see drawings on the right).

Psychogeography Walks: Aldeburgh with an iPhone 2023

To be done September together with sketchbooks: My starting point for this project will be a series of Psychogeography walk experiments with my new iPhone 12 as I work through the OCA Psychogeography short course. I will contrast and compare my experience of each of the following techniques, and what they teach me further about a place that I have often been to as a tourist.

Starting in a place you know, and then going forward for one minute, left for one minute, right for one minute; repeating this pattern until you are actually lost.

Doing absolutely everything that each street sign tells you to do.

If the sun is out, walk keeping your shadow on your left at all times.

Get a tourist or google map of your home town/village, take a ruler and draw a diagonal line right through it. Try to traverse that line.

Using the same technique above, draw a circle, shape or letter on the map - walk that route.

Other walking ideas and techniques will be added eg from participatory transect walking used in community development projects.

These will form the basis for a documentary narrative for further inquiry on-line and discussion with local people.

Text from my diary in 2016 - notes on walks and also art exhibitions, radio programmes and books I read at the time. These provide some possible starting points, but my aim is to substantially add and update these to the context in 2021.

Other Links

VIDEO AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

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The name "Aldeburgh" derives from the Old English ald (old) and burh (fortification), although this structure, along with much of the Tudor town, has now been lost to the sea. In the 16th century, Aldeburgh was a leading port and had a flourishing shipbuilding industry.

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Aldeburgh Edgescapes SMUGMUG professional website: Full resolution image portfolios

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Aldeburgh Edgescapes SMUGMUG professional website: Full resolution image portfolios

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Photography and Photo screen images of seascapes, people, shingle flotsam and urban scenes. sections of old boats lying on Aldeburgh beach.

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Creative documentary photographs and photoscreen prints presenting different perspectives on life in Aldeburgh.

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A Mermaid's Tale: SMUGMUG professional website Full resolution Book Page Spreads and Image Portfolio

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A Mermaid's Tale: SMUGMUG professional website Full resolution Book Page Spreads and Image Portfolio

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A Mermaid's Tale: an imagined version of local mermaid and wild man tales based on found images in old wooden boards propped up around the fish houses.

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“I hear those voices that will not be drowned”

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Moot Histories: SMUGMUG professional website Full resolution Book page spreads and image Portfolio 

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Moot Histories: SMUGMUG professional website Full resolution Book page spreads and image Portfolio 

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Moot Histories: imagined historical events based on the flint stonework in the medieval Moot House that was originally in the centre of the town but is now next to the sea.

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'Facts are not Truth but the record of what's left on the record. It is up to the living to interpret, or, indeed, misinterpret,

those accounts."

Hilary Mantell, interview Radio 4 2017

"The Moot Hall in Aldeburgh was built during the first half of the 16th Century; the experts agree. Beyond that, however, there is no certainty. No documentary evidence exists; the style of the building suggests to one expert that it was built about 1520 and to another about 1550. We must be content with that. What we do know is that the building of Aldeburgh's Town Hall coincided with the beginning of a period of prosperity in the town which lasted approximately 150 years."
Moot Hall Museum website

The images in this book were developed from snapshots of the cracks, marks and fissures in the flintstones on the wall of the hall. Inspired by different accounts of the history of Aldeburgh from the Pliocene 'Coralline Crags' to the current days challenges the town faces.

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'Facts are not Truth but the record of what's left on the record. It is up to the living to interpret, or, indeed, misinterpret, those accounts." Hilary Mantell, interview Radio 4 2017 "The Moot Hall in Aldeburgh was built during the first half of the 16th Century; the experts agree.

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Edges Found: Aldeburgh Suffolk Coast SMUGMUG Overview

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Edges Found: Aldeburgh Suffolk Coast SMUGMUG Overview

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‘Edges Found’ is a series of books and image portfolios developed from photographs of ‘found narratives’ in textures of objects scattered around Aldeburgh.

Found images from sources like the flint stonework of the Moot Hall, rusty tractors, wooden boards propped outside fish houses and nets lying on the beach inspire a range of imaginary  and 'truth' narratives. Texture snapshots were first taken and then developed in Procreate on my iPad as historical imaginings, Suffolk Folk Tales about mermaids and sea monsters, well-known poems and uncertain futures.

Full resolution book page spreads and images have been uploaded to my SMUGMUG website with shop.

The padlet below gives links to the books and images, together with links to research, inspiration and pdf overview of the development process and narrative issues.

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Edges Found i s a series of book and single image narratives based inspired by detail photographs of found textures around Aldeburgh in Suffolk.

The name "Aldeburgh" derives from the Old English ald (old) and burgh (fortification), although this structure, along with much of the Tudor town, has now been lost to the sea. In the 16th century, Aldeburgh was a leading port and had a flourishing shipbuilding industry. Aldeburgh's importance as a port declined as the River Alde silted up and larger ships could no longer berth. It survived mainly on fishing until the 19th century, when it also became a seaside resort. As a popular tourist town it has a thriving artistic as well as festival tradition on which some of my work draws.

Aldeburgh is currently 'on the edge' in a number of ways:

- geographically it is extremely vulnerable to encroachment of the sea. Half the land originally occupied by Aldeburgh in the middle ages has now disappeared through both gradual erosion and storm disasters. The sea is currently held at bay with barriers and groynes, but the area is threatened in the longer term by global warming.

- to the North the skyline is dominated by Sizewell nuclear power station - with periodic leaks though none so far serious. The current strategic government focus on nuclear energy and likely development of the new nuclear power station at Sizewell C will lead to profound ecological and economic changes.

'Rust Poems: Erasures for the 21st Century' are a series of erasure poems suggested by found images in a rusty tractor on Aldeburgh beach.

'A Mermaid's Tale' is an imaginary narrative about gender violence and mythologies based very loosely on re-reading of local folk tales about mermaids, wild men and sea monsters. Inspired by iPad photographs of found images in wooden boards by the fishing boats along the beach.

'Moot Histories: Aldeburgh written in stone' is a series of semi-factual historical vignettes, based loosely on historical 'facts', based on imaginary scenes from iPad photographs of found images in the flint stonework of the Moot Hall, now a museum.'

'Aldeburgh Edgescapes' : Photography and photo screen prints of Aldeburgh seascapes, people and urban landscapes showing the continually changing economic, social and environmental context.

'Aldeburgh Edgescapes' is in the process of further development for 'Shingle' a joint exhibition of photography and artwork with painter Howard Andrews in Aldeburgh Ballroom Arts Gallery, May 2023. The books and images presented here are still ongoing projects for which the final text still needs to be finalised building on input from people in Aldeburgh and elsewhere 2023-2024.

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Illustrated books based on found images and narratives from wood, flint and a rusty tractor from the beach and Moot hall in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, UK. Cropped photographic images taken on an iPad suggest narratives around local and global environmental and social issues.

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Rust Poems - Modern Award-winning Rust Poetry : All Poetry

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Rust Poems - Modern Award-winning Rust Poetry : All Poetry

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Poems about Rust at the world's largest poetry site. Ranked poetry on Rust, by famous & modern poets. Learn how to write a poem about Rust and share it!

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FRS 001 - Roman settlement debris and Prehistoric and Medieval finds at Barbers Point - Suffolk Heritage Explorer

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2004-2006: small amount of medieval pottery in a possible medieval revetted pit during excavations (S1).

Roman Settlement debris, eroded by tides. C1-C2 pottery. Seal box, bronze pin, samian, excavated by Aldeburgh Literary Society.
`Roman remains found AD 1907' marked on OS map 1:10560.
111 miscellaneous Rom sherds and a whetstone, and a number of bones including a fish vertebrae and two boar tusks labelled `Banks of the Alde, Suffolk', or `Island, Alde River', August 11th 1870 ALF (Augustus Lane Fox, later General Pitt Rivers). All in Salisbury museum (S3). Probably same as 1870 finds - see (R3).
1907 finds in Aldeburgh (Guildhall) museum (S5).

September 2003: Magnetometer & Palaeoenvironmental Surveys. Geophysical survey (magnetometry) showed three sides of a rectangular enclosure, partially doubleditched (S6)(S7, appendix 2 & 3).

2004 & 2006: Prehistoric flint tools were recovered from across the site, mainly in residual contexts, although two possible prehistoric pits were identified. Stray finds included two Lower Palaeolithic hand-axes, perhaps collected and brought to the site from elsewhere at a later date. The small Neolithic assemblage included two leaf-shaped arrowheads, again perhaps collected later, but the bulk of the material, mainly flint flakes, was identified as of Bronze Age date.
Despite the majority of the pottery and other finds belonging to the Roman period, few features of this date were identified. The finds assemblage indicates activity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, of relatively low status and with some connection to saltextraction indicated by the presence of briquetage.Most of the excavated features proved to be of Middle Saxon date (See FRS 001 Barbers Point (SAX). During the medieval period finds of pottery suggest a low level of activity. A revetted pit outside the north-east corner of the Anglo-Saxon enclosure may relate to reclamation of the saltmarsh and its use for grazing in the medieval and later periods. Away from the immediate vicinity of the excavations an auger-hole survey and subsequent palaeoenvironmental analysis showed that tidal channels and saltmarsh had originally separated Barber's Point from the higher ground to the north.

2010 Excavations: The River Alde Saxon Heritage Project was commissioned by the Aldeburgh and District Local History Society following the award of a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This project was designed to examine the significance of Barber's Point during the Middle Saxon period (AD 650 - 850). The site of Barber's Point, on the north bank of the River Alde, is strategically positioned on what would then have been an island. The 2010 excavations were designed to further investigate a partly revealed post-hole structure and to see if the burials encountered in previous excavations continued to the north. The thick overlying layer (containing abundant quantities of Roman pottery) was sieved for finds and the underlying features excavated and recorded. Despite the abundance of Roman finds surviving, features of this period were very sparse with only a few pits revealed. Neolithic-Bronze Age flint artefacts were recovered yet no prehistoric features have been convincingly identified suggesting that there was no permanent settlement. There is also some likelihood that the island was in use during the Iron Age and into the transition to the Roman period. During this early period of the 1st centuries BC/AD it is probable that the river frontage near the site was used for salt extraction, followed by intermittent light occupation during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The Roman site use was probably associated with seasonal grazing of the surrounding saltmarsh and the exploitation of nearby estuarine resources. A number of significant Roman finds were recovered including pottery, a copper alloy brooch, a silver denarius coin, an iron finger ring, a shaft of a bone pit, a fragment of a ceramic figurine, and three sherds of Roman glass.
Middle Saxon to Late Saxon remains were much more apparent - see individual record FRS 001 Barbers Point (SAX).
The medieval period was represented by 11th-14th century pottery.
(See S8 Excavation Report)

2013 Excavations: The fourth and final part of the archaeological investigations to focus on uncovering the remaining area of the cemetery and the relationship between the saxon burials and surrounding enclosure ditches (recorded under a separate record FRS 001 Barbers Point (SAX) ). Touching the Tide (a Heritage Lottery Fund Landscape Partnership Scheme) was a major supporter of the excavation. Small quantites of prehistoric pottery, struck flint and heat-altered stones were recorded and are mainly residual in the later features. A prehistoric shallow stone-filled feature and large central pit were revealed. No Roman features were identified. The Medieval period was only represented by 5 shers of medieval pottery (S9).

See Also FRS 001 Barbers Point (SAX)

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FRS 001 - Roman settlement debris and Prehistoric and Medieval finds at Barbers Point - Suffolk Heritage Explorer

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Please read our guidance about the use of Suffolk Historic Environment Record data.

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Aldeburgh has almost no recorded history before the time of Henry VIII, but archaeological evidence indicates the earlier presence of both the Romans and the Saxons.

By the time Domesday Book was compiled in 1086 this corner of Suffolk was one of the most highly populated parts of the country; foreign merchant ships were visiting English waters; and the port of Dunwich was developing, soon to dominate the coast. Aldeburgh, however, remained an unimportant little fishing village until some time after 1500, when its shifting coast-line opened up a sheltered 'haven' which soon became a thriving centre for ship-building and trade. The town prospered. It was granted borough status in 1529 by Henry VIII. Two of Sir Francis Drake's most-famous ships - The Greyhound and the Golden Hind were built in the town.

Aldeburgh's importance as a port declined as the River Alde silted up and large vessels could no longer berth there. It survived as a fishing village until the the 19th Century when it became a fashionable seaside resort. Boats still fish from the shore and sell their catch from huts on the shingle beach.

Aldeburgh was the home of composer Benjamin Britten and is at the centre of the internationally-acclaimed Aldeburgh Festival at nearby Snape Maltings. And in 1908, Aldeburgh became the first British town to elect a female Mayor, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. The town will be celebrating the centenary of her death in 2017.

Aldeburgh lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Protected by shingle banks, the town enjoys stunning views across the sea, marsh land, heaths and estuary.

It has many buildings of historic interest, including the 16th Century Moot Hall and a Napoleonic-era Martello Tower.
For more information about the Museum, Aldeburgh and the Moot Hall, click here.

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Aldeburgh has almost no recorded history before the time of Henry VIII, but archaeological evidence indicates the earlier presence of both the Romans and the Saxons. By the time Domesday Book was compiled in 1086 this corner of Suffolk was one of the most highly populated parts of the country; foreign merchant ships were visiting English waters; and the port of Dunwich was developing, soon to dominate the coast.

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Aldeburgh ( AWL-bər-ə) is a North Sea coastal English town in the county of Suffolk, north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019.[2] It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the international Aldeburgh Festival of arts at nearby Snape Maltings, f…

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Witches in and around Suffolk” by Pip Wright » Alde Valley Suffolk Family History Group

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Witches in and around Suffolk” by Pip Wright » Alde Valley Suffolk Family History Group

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After a pause for the peak summer holiday period in August, our September talk was by Pip Wright. Pip is a retired primary school teacher, living in Stowmarket, who writes local history books, and gives talks to groups of all kinds and all ages across East Anglia. Together with his late wife Joy, w…

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Delving into Suffolk's mysterious history of witchcraft

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In April 1890, an inquest was held at Fressingfield into the death of Edith Margaret Hammond, who, at just 11 weeks old, mysteriously died soon after her grandmother had also passed away.

The Daily News reported: "This woman died a few hours before the child, and stated that the child would not live long after her. The father stated that he saw smoke issue from the perambulator and that the child died upon being taken home, the mother stating that it was hot and dry and smelt of brimstone.

"George Corbyn, the child's grandfather, said he was of opinion his late wife had the powers of a witch and he always tried to do what she wanted in consequence."

At the time of the incident, it was more than 150 years since the law had been changed to stop the persecution of witches. But old habits and beliefs die hard.

The history of witchcraft in Suffolk is a dark story of suffering, persecution and death, reaching into the hearts of families and communities, and creating fear and hysteria that persisted even until recent times.

Throughout the Middle Ages, white witches, working as herbalists and midwives, enjoyed the mysticism that surrounded them. Even kings took their advice.

One of the earliest tales is of Margery Jourdemaine, The Witch of Eye, who was tried in 1441 with Thomas Southwell and Roger Bolingbroke, accused of using sorcery to know the date of the death of Henry VI. (He was just 20 at the time and lived for another 30 years).

Margery was burned for treason, while her more noble accomplices were hanged, drawn and quartered. She couldn't have been tried for witchcraft because there was no law prohibiting it. Magic was merely a cause for wonder and very much accepted in this part of the world.

It wasn't until 1563 that the Witchcraft Act fully appeared on the statute books. Even this didn't link witchcraft with the devil or with religious heresy, but only condemned to death those who committed murder.

While the rest of Europe burned witches, the 1563 Act only prescribed death by hanging for those "who shall use practise or exercise any witchcrafte, enchantment, charme or sorcerie whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed". Lesser witchcraft offences were punishable by up to a year's imprisonment and a spell in the pillory.

In one early Suffolk trial, Oliffe Barthram, of Stradbroke, was accused at Bury Assizes by witnesses, including the parish constable and the vicar, who testified that she had sent a spirit, in the form of a cat called Gyles, down the chimney of one Joan Jordan, to kill her.

It was also claimed that she had killed an unborn child by "nipping out his brains". She was found guilty and hanged at Bury on July 12, 1599.

Sink or swim

When James I became King of England in 1603, he brought a deep hatred of witches, and had already published a book on the subject, Daemonologie. From 1604 the law intensified. To hang you no longer had to be guilty of murder by way of sorcery, merely attempting to conjure spirits was a capital offence.

To bring a witch to trial there had to be witnesses, the more the merrier. And there was nothing like a confession to secure a conviction, though how some confessions were obtained was a concern, even back then.

It was useful to be able to show that a witch had been marked by the devil as belonging to him, with places on the body where the witch could not feel pain. 'Prickers' were employed, who used a variety of knives and probes to test their victims for 'devil's marks'.

And there were the 'tests'. One involved weighing the so-called witch against the big Bible in the parish church. If the Bible was heavier, it proved guilt. But the most famous test was to 'swim' your suspected witch.

Trussed crossways, the right thumb tied to the left big toe, and the left thumb to the right big toe, the suspect was ducked in water, as prayers were spoken. If she sank she was innocent, if she floated she was guilty, a sign that the water of her baptism was rejecting her.

As more and more witches were brought to trial, the public looked for protection against such evil, turning to the church, or to people offering protective remedies. It was said 'cunning men' could sell you a witch bottle to protect your home and family, and Bellarmine bottles, with their distinctive bearded faces, seemed designed for the purpose.

Recent scientific examination of several found buried under floors of old houses has shown the typical contents to have been iron nails, pins, pointed sticks, human hair, nail clippings and phosphates, denoting the presence of urine.

Renovations of old buildings have yielded all manner of good-luck charms in walls and chimneys, such as mummified cats, silver coins, shoes and horse skulls - even witches' brooms. It's interesting how many have been put back. Well, you never know...

Horrible Hopkins

The 17th century was a confusing time of social and religious change, civil war and the infamous Matthew Hopkins, self-styled Witchfinder General. Hopkins travelled East Anglia, earning a comfortable living finding and bringing to trial hundreds of witches in six counties.

His team specialised in extracting confessions from unfortunate individuals who they had been paid to find and bring to trial. In the summer of 1645, Hopkins swept through Suffolk, bringing to trial at least 117 'witches' and 'wizards'. Just 17 of those tried were men. Three married couples were also indicted.

Parishes in Suffolk where the number of witches tried at assize totalled four or more were Framlingham (10), Halesworth (8), Bramford (6), Ipswich (6), Copdock (4), Hintlesham (4), Chattisham (5) Rattlesden (5), Stowmarket (5), Wickham (5), Bacton (4), and Glemham (9). Another seven were hanged at Aldeburgh.

In such Puritan times, the explicit sexual content of trials shocked and excited Suffolk people. Elizabeth Southerne, of Dunwich, claimed that another witch, Mother Collit, had sent the devil to her in the form of a crab.

Climbing into her bed, he had nipped her and drunk her blood, so sealing a covenant and promising to provide for her. She claimed he lay with her a number of times after that, in different forms, once as "a hairy black boy", just 10 years old.

The confession of Margaret Bennet, of Bacton, said: "The devil in the shape of a man, carried her body over a close into a thicket of bushes and there lay with her, and after scratched her hand with the bushes and took her hand into his hand and writ upon a black patch, but she knew not what."

It's been suggested that at least 60 of Hopkins' victims were hanged, though this is probably a bit of an exaggeration. Several found guilty seem to reappear later in parish records. One of his victims was Mary Lakeland, who was burned after confessing to bewitching her husband who lay in great misery until his death. Witches were almost never to death.

What made this case special was the murder of a husband. Classed as petty treason, it carried the penalty of being "burned to ashes".

Another notorious case was 80-years-old Reverend John Lowes, who after 48 years as vicar at Brandeston, was not a popular man.

By all accounts, Hopkins kept Rev Lowes awake for several nights, after which his men ran him up and down the room until, exhausted and caring little for life, he confessed to sending his imps to sink ships between Yarmouth and Winterton, and causing "the child of Nathaniel Mann to languish and die". He was among at least 19 witches hanged at Bury St Edmunds on August 27, 1645. Newspapers were sold detailing their crimes and convictions.

Hopkins picked on the most vulnerable members of society, but his credibility was short-lived. One or two high profile cases left a bad taste in the mouth, and he left a mountain of resentment when he moved on to Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

By the end of 1646, he was welcome nowhere, and ceased his witch-finding activities. The Hammer Horror film, Witchfinder General (1970), filmed in Suffolk, would have us believe that he came to a gruesome end. It's far more likely that, suffering from tuberculosis, he returned home where he died.

Though the trials continued, more enlightened judges persuaded even the most superstitious jurors to question what was being presented as 'evidence' in their courts. In the spring of 1694, Sir John Holt heard a number of indictments against Phillipa Munnings, of Hartest, including three accusations of "bewitching to death".

It was claimed she had threatened her landlord, Thomas Pannell, "Thy nose shall lie upward in the churchyard before Sunday next", an unfortunate prediction, which turned out to be true. But she was acquitted of all charges, and protested her innocence right up to her own death two years later.

The last capital conviction in England for witchcraft was probably in Hertfordshire in 1712, but it wasn't until 1736 that former Witchcraft Acts were repealed, though not entirely removed from the statute books. Technically, you could still be imprisoned for practising witchcraft until 1951. Only then was the act finally abolished.

Read all about it

You can change the law with the stroke of a pen, but you don't change Suffolk people's opinions and beliefs that easily. On a loose paper at the end of the parish register of Monks Eleigh are the words, "Dec. the 19th 1748, Alice, the wife of Thomas Green, labourer, was swam, malicious and wicked people having raised an ill report of her for being a witch."

From the early 18th century, local newspapers were being published across East Anglia, which shows how attitudes had changed little in rural Suffolk, in spite of what had been prescribed at Westminster.

The Norwich Gazette of September 1752 reports: "By a letter from Woodbridge in Suffolk, we learn that the country people about Aspal Stonham in that neighbourhood are still so full of ignorance and superstition that they imagine there are several witches and wizards in that neighbourhood and they have tied up two or three old people in sheets with cords around their middles and flung them into the rivers to see if they could save themselves."

Both local and national press attended when a 67-years-old man was swum for a wizard at Wickham Skeith in front of hundreds of people.

According to the Suffolk Chronicle, of July 16, 1825: "Isaac Stebbings, earns a living as a huckster. As in former days of gross credulity and ignorance, someone or other put forth the surmise that two afflicted persons are bewitched, and Stebbings was spoken of as the worker of the mischief.

Besides this, the village shoemaker persisted that one morning, as Stebbings passed two or three times before his house, he could not "make" his wax - the ingredients would neither melt nor mix. Dubbed a wizard beyond all doubt, poor Stebbings, ignorant as his neighbours, and teased beyond bearing, proposed at length, of himself, the good old fashioned ordeal of sink or swim."

The article describes how his accusers attempted, without success, to get Stebbings to sink, keeping the poor old fellow three quarters of an hour in the pond until he came out "more dead than alive".

The Chronicle concluded: "Even now in the nineteenth century, a portion of the populace - perhaps a considerable portion - retaining the foolish prejudices of their forefathers, believe that there are witches and wizards still.' Isaac Stebbings lived for another 22 years.

The Star of the East, June 15, 1886, reported: "Witchcraft at Framsden - The greatest excitement has been caused in the unusually quiet village of Framsden by a report that has got about among the labouring classes that a young girl living on the road from Otley to Framsden has been bewitched.

"It seems that the girl has been subject to periodical fits. Large numbers of people have nightly congregated at the cottage to witness the spiritualistic manifestations which accompany the fits. These are said to consist of violent twitchings of the bed furniture and supernatural knockings on the wall."

Across East Anglia, 19th century papers carried countless tales of burning effigies, hauntings, and even mob-justice. The famous Hedingham witchcraft case recorded how, in 1864, Emma Smith, of Ridgewell, and Samuel Stammers, of Sible Hedingham, in Essex, would eventually be charged with causing the death of an old disabled man known as Dummy. Thinking him to be a sorcerer, the two ring-leaders assembled a crowd and attempted to swim him in a stream.

Dummy never recovered from his ordeal and died a month later. The pair were found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to six months of hard labour.

The East Anglian Miscellany of 1904, reported: "In Stowmarket, we have a woman who is said to have inherited the gift from her mother, who cuts for the spleen, an imaginary affection.

"The woman cuts the back of the ear slightly with a razor, dips her finger into the exuding blood, marks the forehead with the sign of a cross, mutters an incantation, puts a plaster of the expressed oil of mace upon the pit of the stomach, orders them to chew rhubarb root before each meal, and the spleen will be cured. She charges a fee of 5s, an important factor in the treatment."

And still, such beliefs held good. Local newspapers in September 1904 published the following case from Bottisham, near Cambridge. "Last year, a wood merchant aged only 27 was imprisoned for cruelty to his three horses. He thought they had been bewitched by an enemy, and to remove the spell he gave them a broth which he made by boiling some nails, a penny worth of pins and pieces of a horse's hoof over a fire with incantations.

"It is by no means improbable that this native of civilised England has occasionally dipped his coin into the missionary's bag to help convert the heathen in his darkness."

We read such accounts with a mixture of horror and amusement. But even today, stories appear from time to time that show belief in forces of the occult is very much alive and thriving in parts of Suffolk.

Suffolk witches

Pip Wright is a retired primary school teacher, living in Stowmarket who writes local history books and gives talks to groups across East Anglia. He has spent years gathering information on Suffolk social history and his particular passion is newspapers of the 18th and 19th centuries.

He has produced several books and says he still has hundreds of more good stories he intends to publish. His book Whistlecraft is the true story of a notorious family of poachers from Rickinghall and is one of four historical novels written about local people.

The others are Lydia, Daniel Malden, and The Class of '63, a novel set around a charity school in Earl Stonham in 1763. pipwright.com

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Delving into Suffolk's mysterious history of witchcraft

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In April 1890, an inquest was held at Fressingfield into the death of Edith Margaret Hammond, who, at just 11 weeks old, mysteriously died soon after her grandmother had also passed away. The Daily News reported: "This woman died a few hours before the child, and stated that the child would not live long after her.

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WEIRD SUFFOLK: The Wildman of Orford who proved to be a most extraordinary catch of the day for Suffolk fishermen

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WEIRD SUFFOLK: The Wildman of Orford who proved to be a most extraordinary catch of the day for Suffolk fishermen

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The Wildman of Orford: “It happened that some fishermen, fishing in the sea there, caught in their nets a merman…” Just who – or what –...

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The Wildman of Orford - from the Yoxford Festival Animation Workshop

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The Wildman of Orford - from the Yoxford Festival Animation Workshop

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The Wild Man (Merman) of Orford Castle // Tales of Suffolk

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The Wild Man (Merman) of Orford Castle // Tales of Suffolk

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Open every day from 1 April to 31 October. Always from 1pm to 4pm. Come and have a look around this wonderful Grade 1 listed Tudor building. Become a Friend. of

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Aldeburgh Moot Hall Museum | History, Photos & Visiting Information

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The obvious chimney stacks were a later addition, as was the name. The town council met here, in a chamber on the first floor, accessed by way of an external stair.

The Hall was restored in 1654, and again in 1854-5 when it became the town hall. The brick infill on the ground floor is Victorian, but the first-floor brick infill dates to the 17th-century restoration. The Moot Hall is one of the most historically important timber-framed civic buildings in England (for another see Fordwich, Kent).

The Moot Hall must have been a lively place when the market was open but is perhaps its role in a more sombre episode in Aldeburgh's history that will be remembered. In 1646, at the height of hysteria over witchcraft, the burgesses of Aldeburgh hired Matthew Hopkins, the infamous Witch Finder General, to determine if any witches were then resident in their town.

Hopkins, as he usually did, found evidence to name six local women as witches. These unfortunate women were held in cells in the Moot Hall until they confessed to their 'crimes'. They were hung on specially constructed gallows, and Hopkins and his associates were well paid for their work.

On a happier note, the Moot Hall is now home to the Aldeburgh Museum, with displays and archives covering the long history of this historic town. Exhibits include Roman Aldeburgh, shipbuilding and fishing, the Martello Tower, the vanished port of Slaughden, and the Aldeburgh Witches.

The museum is closed during the winter months.

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aldeburgh moot hall museum travel history attraction description uk travel tourism guide

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Aldeburgh Moot Hall Museum | History, Photos & Visiting Information

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The obvious chimney stacks were a later addition, as was the name. The town council met here, in a chamber on the first floor, accessed by way of an external stair. The Hall was restored in 1654, and again in 1854-5 when it became the town hall.

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‘Facts are not truth’: Hilary Mantel goes on the record about historical fiction

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‘Facts are not truth’: Hilary Mantel goes on the record about historical fiction

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The Booker Prize-winning novelist’s Reith lectures explore the complex relationship between historical fact and fiction.

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Rust poems: SMUGMUG professional website Full resolution Book Page spreads and Image portfolio

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Rust poems: SMUGMUG professional website Full resolution Book Page spreads and Image portfolio

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Note it is completely unclear why Padlet in its wisdom chooses not to show the cover image as it has with the other portfolios and confusingly uses some sort of screenshot

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‘Rust Poems; Erasures for the 21st Century’ are a series of three erasure poems suggested by found images from a rusty tractor on the beach in Aldeburgh in Suffolk.