Colchester Oyster Fishery Ltd

09/03/2026

I think it’s going to be a long day out on the river.

09/03/2026

26/02/2026

Our pot of gold is a boat load of oysters!

23/02/2026

How do you like yours?

Do you like your lobster cooked to perfection and left whole so you can have the fun of breaking it down to eat, or would do you take your lobster dressed and ready to eat?

21/02/2026

This might look like a pretty uninteresting picture but it's really quite special.

This clay pipe came up in the dredge this week, judging by the size of the bowl it's probably from the 18th century. The smaller the bowl the older the pipe, as the size of the bowl increased as to***co became cheaper.

The pipe stem would have started about 30cm long, over time bits of the stem broke off and when it became as short as this one, it would have been too hot to hold, so thrown over the side of the boat.

What made this extra special for me, was that the last person who held the pipe, some 300 years ago, was out on the river probably doing the same job I was doing, dredging oysters.

19/02/2026

Oyster farming isn’t all sunshine and blue sky, sometimes it’s standing out in the wind and rain for hours at a time selecting oysters by hand and by eye one at a time.

17/02/2026

From the Dredge

We often bring up chunks of chalk with the oysters from years gone by when it was believed the chalk would add calcium to the beds and therefore help the oysters grow strong shells.

We also bring up lots of golf balls, but I think that's just because someone likes hitting golf balls into the river...

14/02/2026

Happy Valentine's Day

Charming oysters I cry:
My masters, come buy,
So plump and so fresh,
So sweet is their flesh,
No Colchester oyster
Is sweeter and moister:
Your stomach they settle,
And rouse up your mettle.

Johnathan Swift (1667-1745)

09/02/2026

The early bird catches the most oysters!

07/02/2026

Lobster Love

Tell your loved one you are their lobster this Valentine's Day. Order your cooked or dressed lobsters online for delivery nationwide, or order in advance and collect your lobster from the Fishery in East Mersea.

www.colchesteroysetrfishery.com

05/02/2026

Come and take a look down the river at our Valentine’s Day oysters growing on our oyster beds. Have you reserved your oysters yet?