Fisheries.—All the seas round Britain are rich in fish, and there are important fishing stations at intervals on all the English coasts, but those on the east coast are by far the most numerous. On an estimate of weight and value of the fish landed, Grimsby at the mouth of the Humber in Lincolnshire, stands pre-eminent as a fishing port. For example, the fish landed Sea fisheries. there in 1903 were of nearly four times the value of those landed at Hull, which was the second in order of all the English stations. Next in importance stand Lowestoft, Yarmouth and North Shields, Boston and Scarborough, and, among a large number of minor fishing stations, Hartlepool and Ramsgate. Great quantities of fish are also landed at the riverside market of Billingsgate in London, but the conditions here are exceptional, the landings being effected by carrier steamers, plying from certain of the fishing fleets, and not taking part in the actual process of fishing. On the south coast Newlyn ranks in the same category with Boston; at Plymouth considerable catches are landed; and Brixham ranks alongside the last ports named on the east coast. The chief fishing centres of the English Channel are thus seen to belong to the coast of Devonshire and Cornwall. On the west coast the Welsh port of Milford takes the first place, while Swansea and Cardiff have a considerable fishing industry, surpassed, however, by that of Fleetwood in Lancashire. Liverpool also ranks among the more important centres. As a comparison of the production of the east, south and west coast fisheries, an average may be taken of the annual catches recorded over a term of years. In the ten years 1894–1903 this average was 6,985,588 cwt. for the east coast stations, 669,759 cwt. for those of the south coast, and 884,932 for those of the west (including the Welsh stations).
Distinctions may be drawn, as will be seen, between the nature and methods of the fisheries on the various coasts, and the relative prosperity of the industry from year to year cannot be considered as a whole. Thus in the period considered the recorded maximum weight of fish landed at the east coast ports was 9,539,114 cwt. in 1903 (the value being returned as £5,721,105); whereas on the south coast it was 736,599 cwt. in 1899, and on the west 1,117,164 cwt. in 1898. Considered as a whole, the individual fish, by far the most important in the English fisheries, is the herring, for which Yarmouth and Lowestoft are the chief ports. The next in order are haddock, cod and plaice, and the east coast fisheries return the greatest bulk of these also. But whereas the south coast has the advantage over the west in the herring and plaice fisheries, the reverse is the case in the haddock and cod fisheries, haddock, in particular, being landed in very small quantities at the south coast ports. Mackerel, however, are landed principally at the southern ports, and the pilchard is taken almost solely off the south-western coast. A fish of special importance to the west coast fisheries is the hake. Among shell-fish, crabs and oysters are taken principally off the east coast; the oyster beds in the shallow water off the north Kent and Essex coasts, as at Whitstable and Colchester, being famous. Lobsters are landed in greatest number on the south coast.
The number of vessels of every sort employed in fishing was returned in 1903 as 9721, and the number of persons employed as 41,539, of whom 34,071 were regular fishermen. The development of the steam trawling-vessel is illustrated by the increase in numbers of these vessels from 480 in 1893 to 1135 in 1903. They belong chiefly to North Shields, Hull, Grimsby, Yarmouth and Lowestoft. There are a considerable number on the west coast, but very few on the south. These vessels have a wide range of operations, pursuing their work as far as the Faeroe Islands and Iceland on the one hand, and the Bay of Biscay and the Portuguese coast on the other.
The English freshwater fisheries are not of great commercial importance, nor, from the point of view of sport, are the salmon and trout fisheries as a whole of equal importance with those of Scotland, Ireland or Wales. The English salmon and trout fisheries may be geographically classified thus: (1) North-western division, Rivers Eden, Derwent, Lune, Freshwater fisheries. Ribble: (2)North-eastern, Coquet, Tyne, Wear, Tees, &c.; (3) Western, Dee, Usk, Wye, Severn; (4) South-western, Taw, Torridge, Camel, Tamar, Dart, Exe, Teign, &c.; (5) Southern, Avon and Stour (Christchurch) and the Itchin and other famous trout streams of Hampshire. The rivers of the midlands and east are of little importance to salmon-fishers, though the Trent carries a few, and in modern times attempts have been made to rehabilitate the Thames as a salmon river. The trout-fishing in the upper Thames and many of its tributaries (such as the Kennet, Colne and Lea) is famous. But many of the midland, eastern and south-eastern rivers, the Norfolk Broads, &c., are noted for their coarse fish.
Mining.—Although the conditions of mining have, naturally, undergone a revolutionary development in comparatively modern times, yet some indications of England’s mineral wealth are found at various periods of early history. The exploitation of tin in the south-west is commonly referred back to the time of the Phoenician sea-traders, and in the first half of the 13th century England supplied Europe with this metal. At a later period tin and lead were regarded as the English minerals of highest commercial value; whereas to-day both, but especially lead, have fallen far from this position. The Roman working of lead and iron has been clearly traced in many districts, as has that of salt in Cheshire. The subsequent development of the iron industry is full of interest, as, while extending vastly, it has entirely lapsed in certain districts. However long before it may have been known to a few, the use of coal for smelting iron did not become general till the later part of the 18th century, and down to that time, iron-working was confined to districts where timber was available for the supply of the smelting medium, charcoal. Thus the industry centred chiefly upon the Weald (Sussex and Kent), the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, and the Birmingham district; but from the first district named it afterwards wholly departed, following the development of the coal-fields. These have, in some cases, a record from a fairly early date; thus, an indication of the Northumberland coal-supply occurs in a charter of 1234, and the Yorkshire coal-field is first mentioned early in the following century. But how little this source of wealth was developed appears from an estimate of the total production of coal, which gives in 1700 only 2,612,000 tons, and, in 1800, 10,080,000 tons, against the returned total (for the United Kingdom) of 225,181,300 tons in 1900.
The chief minerals raised in England, as stated in the annual home office report on mines and quarries, appear in order of value, thus: coal, iron ore, clay and shale, sandstone, limestone, igneous rocks, salt, tin ore. Coal surpasses all the other minerals to such an extent that, taking the year 1903 as a type, when the total value of the mineral output was very nearly £70,000,000, that of coal is found to approach £61,000,000.
The position of the various principal coal-fields has been indicated in dealing with the physical geography of England, but the grouping of the fields adopted in the official report may be given here, together with an indication of the counties covered by each, and the percentage of coal to the total bulk raised in each county. These figures are furnished as a general Coal-fields. demonstration of the geographical distribution of the industry, but are based on the returns for 1903.
| Coal-fields. | Counties. | Percentage. | |
| Northern | Durham | 22·37 | |
| Northumberland | 7·48 | ||
| Yorkshire, &c. | Yorkshire (West Riding)[1] | 17·76 | |
| Derbyshire | 9·40 | ||
| Nottinghamshire | 5·41 | ||
| Lancashire and Cheshire | Lancashire | 15·26 | |
| Cheshire | 0·25 | ||
| Midland[2] | Leicestershire | 1·31 | |
| Shropshire | 0·50 | ||
| Staffordshire | 8·10 | ||
| Warwickshire | 2·12 | ||
| Worcestershire | 0·44 | ||
| Small detached | Cumberland | 1·37 | |
| Gloucestershire[3] | 0·87 | ||
| Somersetshire | 0·62 | ||
| Westmorland | 0·07 | ||
| Yorkshire (North Riding)[1] | · · | ||
| Monmouthshire[4] | 6·67 | ||
The coal-fields on the eastern flank of the Pennines, therefore, namely, the Northern and the Yorkshire, are seen to be by far the most important in England. The carrying trade in coal is naturally very extensive, and may be considered here. The principal ports for the shipping of coal for export, set down in order of the amount shipped, also fall very nearly into topographical groups, thus:—Newcastle, South Shields and Blyth in the Northern District; Newport in Monmouthshire; Sunderland in the Northern District, Hull, Grimsby and Goole on the Humber, which forms the eastern outlet of the Yorkshire coal-fields; Hartlepool, in the Northern District, and Liverpool. The tonnage annually shipped ranges from about 412 millions of tons in the case of Newcastle to some half a million in the case of Liverpool; but the export trade of Cardiff in South Wales far surpasses that of any English port, being more than three times that of Newcastle in 1903. The coastwise carrying trade is also important, the bulk being shared about equally by Sunderland, Newcastle, South Shields and Cardiff, while Liverpool has also a large share. Of the whole amount of coal received coastwise at English and Welsh ports (about 1312 million tons), London received considerably over one-half (nearly 8 million tons in 1903). The railways having the heaviest coal traffic are the North-Eastern, which monopolizes the traffic of Northumberland and Durham; the Midland, commanding the Derbyshire, Yorkshire and East Midland traffic, and some of the Welsh; the London & North Western, whose principal sources are the Lancashire, Staffordshire
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The figure 17·76 is the percentage for the whole of Yorkshire.
- ↑ The West Midlands (Shropshire, &c.) include the coal-fields of Shrewsbury, Leebotwood, Coalbrookdale, the Clee Hills and the Forest of Wyre.
- ↑ The Forest of Dean coal-field is in Gloucestershire.
- ↑ The coal-field of Monmouthshire belongs properly to, and in the Report is classified with, the great coal-field of South Whales.
