VINE! VRESH! COCKLES AN' WINKLES |
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"Mr Onion. Cockles and Winkles. Vine! Vresh! Cockles an' winkles! Photographed by J C Dinham c.1900 ©Gordon Higham |
Climb up the long steep hill out of Shaldon and, surprisingly soon, you are on the outskirts of Torquay. Joseph Onion made this journey regularly for many years, bringing fresh shell fish to kitchen doors throughout Torquay. We know Joseph's surname and the words he cried around the streets from James Dinham's title for this photograph but perhaps what caught his eye was the wooden leg sticking awkwardly out of the little cart.
Joseph was born in Shaldon, on 12 January 1842 and joined the Royal Navy as a young boy in November 1859. He was first sent to HMS Blenheim then on to HMS Royal Albert and finally, in February 1860, to HMS Trafalgar on completion of her screw propulsion refit. But on 16 December that year, having served for only 316 days, he was discharged from the Royal Navy with an excellent character reference - the reason for discharge being summed up in one word - "wounds". He was 18 years old. and in the Royal Navy of his day, there was no question of a pension for someone who was still under the age of consent and considered to be the responsibility of his parents. He went home to Shaldon, to his father and mother, Richard and Anna Onion.
Joseph married Mary Jane Meyer in 1872 and the support of his family, the little cart, the donkey and his personal endeavour became the means of survival to a man with 7 children living. Joseph died at his home in Middle Street, Shaldon in 1925 aged 83.
The "Vine! Vresh!" cockles and winkles he sold came from the shell fishery on the River Teign near Combe Cellars. In Joseph's day there would have been dozens of men, - as well as women with their skirts ingeniously tucked up so they looked like trousers - knee-deep in water on the sand banks as the tide receded, raking up cockles and winkles. Today, there is only one full-time operator of the shell fishery employing two men, with mussels and oysters replacing cockles and winkles in public favour.
Cockles have 2 shells and are bivalves; winkles are single-shelled and are gastropods. Both have soft and very tasty flesh. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they were very cheap and nutritious and, lightly boiled, they were taken out of their shells to make a delicious meal served on hot, buttery toast. |
© M.E. Brine. This page last updated
5 May, 2010
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