“The man sure had a palate covered o’er with brass or steel, that on the rocky shore first broke the oozy oyster’s pearly coat, and risked the living morsel down his throat.” (John Gay, 18th century English playwright)
2013-05-16 — /travelprnews.com/ — As part of the Jersey Food Festival, the National Trust for Jersey is encouraging visitors to share in a celebration of the oyster, a cheap and plentiful food source during the Georgian era, which was first propagated on the Island’s east coast in the early 19th century.
Visitors to 16 New Street will have the opportunity to sample cooked and raw oysters grown in Jersey waters, prepared to period recipes by the cook/housekeeper, Louisa De Gruchy. Come along to the Georgian kitchen and indulge in tasty treats such as fried oysters in white wine, nutmeg and mace served in pastry cases, devilled oysters or buttered prawns and smoked haddock pate, washed down with a glass of wine.
16 New Street is the last remaining example of a detached early Georgian town house of substance in St. Helier, having been donated to the National Trust in 2003. The generous bequest of Molly Houston the following year facilitated the complete structural and cosmetic repair of the property which, by then, had been neglected for two decades. Having opened to the public in 2011, the house is a time capsule that transports visitors back in time to Jersey in the early 19th century.
16 New Street is open 10:00 – 17:00 each Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the year until 1st November. Adult entry is £5, Children £3, under 10s and Members are free. Free entry to the shop.
History of the Jersey Oyster (paraphrased from ‘A People of the Sea’, A.G. Jamieson ed.)
Whilst oyster beds around the Island have been fished for centuries to supply local demand, in 1797 extensive oyster beds were discovered between Jersey and France. Despite the war with France, oyster dredges from Jersey and England quickly took advantage of this new resource to supply merchants in Kent and Sussex.
Oysters were landed, sorted and packed in Grouville Bay, before being laid down in Kentish or other beds for fattening, prior to being sent for sale in London.
After the peace with France in 1815, the industry grew rapidly with an average of 100,000 tubs of oysters being shipped to England during the 1820s and ‘30s. The Jersey fishery by then employed 300 vessels manned by more than 1,500 seamen, and gave work to 1,000 in the east of the Island. The success of the trade stimulated development of the harbour at Gorey, where the pier was rebuilt and improved and cottages were constructed.
French hostility to what appeared to be a British monopoly of the oyster beds led to serious clashes from 1819 as the British fleets fished ever closer to the French coast. This led to a greater regulation of the industry and delineation of fishing zones, eventually enshrined in the Anglo-French convention of August 1839.
A lull in 1840s was followed by great success for the Jersey Oyster fishery in the 1850s; in 1856 nearly 180,000 tubs of oysters, worth £35,000, were exported to England. The 1860s however saw the beginning of a rapid collapse due to over-fishing and other factors; by 1871 there were only 6 boats employed in the industry, and by 1890 even those had disappeared.
The Jersey Oyster Company was formed in 1973 as Le Socite des Produits Ostricole Jerrais; the company has farmed shellfish on the South East coast of the island since then, and now exports 600 tonnes of oysters to England and France each year.