Perhaps the most famous fishing family from the Wash are the Linehams of Fosdyke who have made their lives from the sea as fishermen and sailors over three centuries. Any family that gains its living from the sea is prone to see more than its fair share of death over the years. Equally their knowledge and experience has seen them save a great many lives.
In the 1970’s they came under much criticism, harassment and attack of their boats for participating in the culling of seals. They were one of only two licences at the time issued nationally by the Ministry to permit the culling of seals to protect fisheries. The criticism, in my opinion, was unfair as this was not a new activity and prior to it being licenced in this way the culling of seals was permitted on a bounty basis that created a detrimental free-for-all often by people acting outside their abilities.
Seals were the first mammals in the UK to be protected in the 20th century with the 1914 Grey Seals Protection Act providing a closed season for hunting them. This was further reinforced by the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 that restricted how seals could be killed and gave the minister the ability to blanket protect them. The last legal cull of seals in the UK was in 1978 and was abandoned due to public pressure. In the decades after this we did see disease such as distemper being a factor in their population suffering periodic declines with subsequent recoveries. Today they are a much loved attraction on the shores of Donna Nook and Frampton Marsh with the Wash Monster amphibious boat taking trippers out to see seals from Hunstanton. Occasionally we see a seal causing much amusement by coming inland as far as Spalding. It needs to be recognised that according to the Linehams about a third of the seals they culled showed signs of disease. As ever the balances of welfare, conservation, man and wildlife are not straightforward.
Prior to the strict licensing of seal culling the Lineham’s would shoot somewhat fewer seals, but ones of note were reported in the local press.
August 1913 John Lineham is reported in the local press as having shot two seals weighing 12 stone and 10 stone respectively for which he was rewarded by the Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee.
February 1932 sees a press report of John Lineham of Fosdyke being accused by the local fisheries bailiff of catching under-sized mussels. The bailiff claimed that out of a catch of roughly 4 tons of mussels 75% were under-sized. A few years later sees John Lineham taking on the role of part-time fisheries bailiff, a post that became full-time in 1939.
Local newspapers carry periodic mentions of various members of the Lineham family, occasional brushes with the law, saving lives on the Wash and Marshes, and sadly recovering bodies. RAF training pilots over the Wash in peace time and then in wartime provided victims as damaged planes hit the marshes and mud flats. However, a great many lives were saved by the Linehams:
November 1938 and an air crash over Holbeach Marsh saw Pilot Officer A.d. Steele Perkins escape by parachute, but landed on the marsh with a broken ankle. He was rescued by Mr Lineham, fisherman at Fosdyke.
Into 1939 and we see Aircraftsman Thomas Arthur Booth of RAF Sutton Bridge rescued after getting lost on an afternoon walk on the marshes:
“The tide was swiftly stealing over the marsh when Mr Booth attempted to find his wy back. With his sense of direction completely lost and deep twilight closing around him, he was forced to the realisation that he was trapped by the tide. Soon he was surrounded by water and had to swim for it, with no knowledge of the direction he should take.
For about an hour he struggled on in a hopeless effort to best the tide. Strength and hope were almost at the last ebb when he saw the shadowy outlines of a fishing smack.
Hope renewed he shouted – but there was no answering hail! Again he called out for help with all the power of his labouring lungs – but the only response was the harsh cries of the wheeling sea gulls.
On board the vessel was Mr. John Lineham a sturdy Fosdyke fisherman. He too was worried by the swift descent of darkness and was seeking a mooring place rather than risk his boat along the shadowy river.
It had only been by chance that Mr. Lineham had taken his vessel out on a fishing expedition. He did not like the look of the weather, but said he “somehow felt” he had to go.
It was about 6.30pm when he decided to abandon hope of returning to Fosdyke and sought for a safe mooring place. The gulls were making a lot of noise, and now and again the call seemed louder and somewhat different.
It was then, peering through the gathering darkness, that he saw the young man feebly struggling in the water, his cries for help becoming fainter and fainter.
Mr Booth was in hailing distance, and the fisherman sprang into action. Shouting encouragement he was glad to see the drowning man recommence his desperate battle, and lost no time in getting the vessel to him and lifting him on board.
Strong tea and lemon juice revived the exhausted man to some extent, but it was obvious that he was in urgent need of medical attention. Only those who know the difficulties and the dangers of the task will appreciate fully the gallant decision made without hesitation by Mr. Lineham, to bring his boat up to Fosdyke.
Even so, it was a slow journey, and it was 9.15p.m. before the vessel crept to its moorings. Only his remarkable knowledge of the area enabled Mr. Lineham to complete the journey in safety in what was really such a short time.
A message was sent to the Ship Inn and a telephone call put through from there to P.C. Tatman, who was promptly on the scene. Dr. Attwater was sent for; and doctor, police officer and fisherman stayed with Mr. Booth until the arrival of the R.A.F. ambulance.
This was Mr. Lineham’s second rescue for he figured prominently in the rescue work when an R.A.F. bomber crashed at Holbeach a few months ago.”
The actor James Robertson Justice found himself indebted to the Linehams on more than one occasion whilst suffering misadventures on wildfowling trips. On Thursday 28th January 1954 James Robertson Justice and his friend Geoffrey Ivan Jones were rescued when they were cut off from their motor boat during a gale whilst wildfowling.
In 1961 James Robertson Justice was punt-gunning with Geoffrey Ivan Jones when the punt capsized in choppy waters in the Welland Outfall. Thankfully a nearby tug witnessed this and they were rescued by Charles Markham , Herbert Clay and James Johnson on the tug which took them in to the port of Fosdyke, but not without incident as they sprung a leak and started to fill with water. A few days after this event Harry Lineham helped retrieve a 200 year old gold snuff box. A transistor radio, an antique comb case, and two small glass bottles that James Robertson Justice had lost when his punt capsized. James did not forget these good deeds sending a telegram to Miss Rosemary Yvonne Lineham and Mr. Keith Crawford when they got married later that year. Upon the death of James Roberston Justice, Harry Lineham was invited to his memorial concert held in Winchester.
Earning a living from the sea is hard and not without its cost:
“Leading Seaman C. Lineham of Fosdyke JUST BACK FROM SICK LEAVE. On Sunday the news reached Fosdyke that Leading Seaman Charles Lineham was one of the unfortunate members of the crew of H.M, auxiliary cruiser Princess Irene, which was blown up in Chatham harbour on Thursday in last week. He was second son of Mr. and Mrs. Lineham of Fosdyke, was known to a wide circle of friends for his breezy and happy disposition winning esteem wherever he went, and his loss will be deeply felt in the district. Having spent all winter on the Torpedo Boat Destroyer Express on patrol duty, he suffered a nervous breakdown, and was sent to hospital, eventually coming home to his parents on sick leave. Recovering, he asked to be transferred, a favour which was granted – unfortunately, as circumstances have proved. He has served seven years in the Navy and was a fine specimen of the British Tar.”
Boston Guardian 5th June 1915.
Charles Lineham was on board HMS Princess Irene on a minelaying operation on Thursday May 27th 1915 when at 11.12am there was a tremendous explosion, and then another. A dense cloud of vapour and smoke shot two miles into the air along with a huge amount of debris. This killed 352 men including 78 workers from Chatham and Sheerness dockyards that were on board the former passenger ship strengthening the improvised gun decks. The cause of the explosion was never concluded but it was possibly faulty or hastily loading and priming of the mines. Most of the bodies were not recovered or identified properly, but there is a mass grave at Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham. Leading Seaman Charles Lineham was, “Missing presumed killed.”
1923 was a bad year for the Lineham family:
“Despite fifty years knowledge of the treacherous waters of the Wash, a fisherman named Lineham of Fosdyke was washed out to sea in a gale. His body has been landed at Kings Lynn.”
Dundee Courier 10th January 1923
“News has just been received by Messrs. G.F. Birch and Son of Spalding, that a sixteen year old ship’s cook, named Lineham of Fosdyke, Lincolnshire, was swept overboard and lost from their vessel “The Agriculture” whilst on the Humber during Thursday’s storm.”
Leeds Mercury 1st September 1923.
That the sea, and especially the Wash needed respect was something that they were only too aware of as illustrated in Tommy Lineham’s words in 1973: “ It is a terrifying place. Most of them, ninety per cent of them, are scared stiff of the Wash. You get a place where you’ve got 48 foot of water and then within six feet you have six foot of dry land.”
Perhaps what has made this enduring family stick for so long to a living from the sea is summed up in the words of Tommy Lineham: “Its in the breed. I don’t know anyone else in my family that has done anything else but fishing, so you must be born with a certain amount of knowledge. Young Tom, my son, never needed half the teaching a normal person would, it was there for a start. We concentrated life on fishing, we knew nothing of football or cricket, we knew nothing about that at all. We concentrated on fishing, that’s all we know. When we get in the pub if they start talking about football or horse racing we’re absolutely lost, all of us. All the Linehams don’t know a football match from a cricket match. Its all the same to them. We live for fishing. We live for our work.”
The family always introduced their children to the sea at an early age meaning each generation held early memories of their predecessors. Tommy Lineham in 1973, “I just remember the days of sail. That was ruddy hard work, for if the wind was wrong you had to push the boat along or row it and trail a net.”
In 2011 Trevor Lineham recalled his first cockle trip aged four, “We were anchored up and I remember my dad telling me not to worry when the tide turned and the boat swung round on its anchor.” In 2011 Trevor was most likely to be found working in the Thames estuary.
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