page_title: Hampton-on-Sea
section_title: Oyster fisheries
hierarchical_section_title: Hampton-on-Sea / History / Oyster fisheries
caption_attribution_description: English: Site of abandoned and drowned village Hampton-on-Sea, Herne Bay, Kent, England. Source of identification of site: Martin Easdown, Adventures in Oysterville, (Michael's Bookshop, Ramsgate, 2008)
context_page_description: Hampton-on-Sea was a drowned and abandoned village in what is now the Hampton area of Herne Bay, Kent. It grew from a tiny fishing hamlet in 1864 at the hands of an oyster fishery company, was developed from 1879 by land agents, abandoned in 1916 and finally drowned due to coastal erosion by 1921. All that now remains is the stub of the original pier, the Hampton Inn, and the rocky arc of Hampton-on-Sea's ruined coastal defence visible at low tide. The site is notable for sharing its history with the eccentric Edmund Reid. Reid was previously the Metropolitan Police head of CID who handled the Jack the Ripper case. In retirement he chose to champion the plight of the beleaguered residents of the settlement.
context_section_description: Oysters had thrived in the Thames Estuary since the Romans promoted them; they were sold in city streets and eaten raw. The Herne Bay, Hampton and Reculver Oyster Fishery Company was incorporated with £10,000 capital in £10 shares on 25 July 1864 with Frank Buckland as chairman and Mr Cholmondeley Pennell as deputy. 1860–1864 had been a boom year for oyster farming, especially in nearby Whitstable, and the Government supported the trade in 1866 by passing an Act to promote cultivation. The company's proposals included five oyster smacks or yawls, a pier with storehouses, housing for workers and five freshwater breeding ponds. In spite of objections from local business competition, the company acquired an Act of Parliament and land at Hampton. According to the Act of 25 July 1864, the company had sole rights to dredge for oysters for seven miles (11 km) from Swalecliffe to Reculver and up to three miles (5 km) – but mainly one and a half miles – from shore. The total area under its jurisdiction was nine square miles, of which a third was foreshore, and it employed thirty-three regular men; sometimes up to a hundred. In 1865 and 1866 their chairman Cholmondeley Pennell applied unsuccessfully for extensions to these rights. Before selling the oysters dredged from the Estuary, the company obtained brood oysters from Essex, France, the Netherlands and Portugal. The smacks took the oysters twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays to Billingsgate.
  The company was successful at first, although stressed by underfunding and the cost of the pier, and by 1866 an enquiry commission stated: "The Company have already cleared about five square miles, and culched about one square mile of their grounds, and have laid down on parts of their beds many millions of oysters". However, as the company was still relatively new, they had not yet developed their oysters to quite the same market value as the long-established Whitstable ones. A sideline for the Hampton fishermen was cement stones, because they were found on the Hampton fishing grounds. These were boulders the size of a man's head, sold to manufacturers of Roman cement. There was a dispute with the rival Whitstable Oyster Company, and Whitstable was fined £1 per oyster taken from Hampton's grounds, while Hampton was accused of not fully exploiting its breeding ponds and of importing foreign oysters for resale. In 1869, local inshore fishermen complained that their traditional territory was now defended on the company's behalf by HMS Buzzard and that the company employed outsiders for long hours and low pay. In the 1870s the oyster trade went into decline and suffered over-fishing, and in 1876 the Government set up a select committee to enquire into scarcity and price. The result was the 1877 Act which prevented sale of dredged oysters in June to August, and freshwater pond oysters between May and August. In the following three severe winters, oysters died in the shallow Estuary waters and the company went into liquidation. The business passed into the hands of hotel owner Major Davis who closed it down when his operation went to Faversham. Company assets were sold on 20 July 1881 and it officially wound up in 1884.
caption: Remains of Hampton Pier built by oyster fisheries, 1865[12]
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