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Photograph of Paul Robinson in his workshop

Paul Robinson

Paul belongs to: The Coble and Keelboat Society

Paul was born in Cullercoats. His family were in fishing and merchant navy. Paul got his first boat when he was 13. He has made a living from fishing and sign painting.

Paul was interviewed by Kylea Little on 1 December 2005. The interview took place at the Interviewee's workshop and lasted 38 minutes and 30 seconds.

Photograph of Paul Robinson in his workshop
Photograph of Paul Robinson in his workshop

The crew in the cobles and decline of the fishing industry

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"A coble- it was two, maybe three, sometimes one. In the latter years just as things has got tightened, folk can’t get crew"

A coble- it was two, maybe three, sometimes one. In the latter years just as things has got tightened, folk can’t get crew, just a real problem with crew for a lot of boats- that’s the same all over Britain, that like. Things like that been that tight with the industry, with regulation, mostly.

Interviewer: And when you first started going out fishing, was, how the industry then, was it…?

It was pretty lively, like. It was, you know, it was good fishing when I started. There’s a lot, lot more boats than you’ll ever see now, you know, plus there was a lot of visiting boats, visiting Blyth and Shields- the place was jumping, really. You know, there was big sprat fishing in the winter, there was lot of cod and haddock to get, you know, it was thriving like. A lot of new boats getting built. And then we joined the EC, that was, that was the start of the downhill.

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This memory has these themes:
Change | Community | Traditions | Work

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