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.
The Fish Quay
"The other businesses on the quay? Well, basically, the other businesses on the Fish Quay are just about non-existent now"
The other businesses on the quay? Well, basically, the other businesses on the Fish Quay are just about non-existent now. There were that many fish merchants down here, just about, well, it was every other doorway was a fish merchant and the lads were inside, belting away, cutting the, or they’d stand in the middle of the road cutting the fish, even in wintertime with the snow dropping on top of them. It was a sight to be seen, because they had to get the fish away to the fish and chip shops, down to London that day, fresh fish, get in on the road, get it away. So virtually the whole line of the Fish Quay was just people cutting fish and wagons and boxes of fish stacked all over the place. And I think now you’ve got possibly three or four left now out of, I would have said, the merchants, in my hay day, there must have been about 50 or 60 fish merchants.
Martin has 12 memories in the memorynet:
Martin's memories with a Change theme:
Changes at Wight’s- Community on the Fish Quay
- The future for the Fish Quay
The Highlander Hotel- North Shields Fish Quay
Martin's other memories:
This memory has these themes:
Community | Environment | Work
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