Martin Pontin
Martin belongs to: Merchants and Traders
Martin grew up in Tynemouth. After the war his father established William Wight Ltd as a family business. The shop provided the fishing fleet with stores and provisions. Martin now manages the shop.
Martin was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 15 February 2006. The interview took place at North Shields Fishermen's Mission and lasted 22 minutes and 30 seconds.
Changes at Wight’s
"The business has changed quite dramatically, actually. I knew it would, it’s because times do change and you cannot do anything about it"
The business has changed quite dramatically, actually. I knew it would, it’s because times do change and you cannot do anything about it. The fishing industry has gone, just about completely. The easiest way to explain it is that when I first started on the Fish Quay and or the first 10 years, it was 95% boats and 5% over the counter, now it’s a total swing the other way- it’s 95% over the counter and 5% boats which is a very, very, very big change.
We have had to change, to survive; we have had to change the shop from a ship suppliers shop, virtually, to a shop which has to deal with boats and tourism at the same time, because that is the ball game down here now.
Instead of having thousands of people on the Fish Quay who are working on the Fish Quay, there’s thousands of people on the Fish Quay who are visiting, which is a big difference. We get people from all over the world coming in the shop, from America, Australia, New Zealand and everything like that. It’s absolutely marvellous, nice to meet these people. The funny thing is they get recommended by people who have already been over. It’s quite funny, actually.
Martin has 12 memories in the memorynet:
Martin's memories with a Leisure theme:
The Cabbage PatchMartin's other memories:
The Highlander HotelThis memory has these themes:
Change | The North East | Work
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