Newtown Oyster Fishery

The Beaulieu and Newtown Oyster Fisheries Co. operated the oyster beds in Newtown, Isle of Wight.

The company was formed April 1880, dissolved 1886. (Records held at Isle of Wight County Record Office)

IW Observer Saturday 20 November 1880.

Yarmouth.

OYSTER FISHERIES. - Newtown Haven, situated about five miles east of Yarmouth, has always been famous for oysters. The Isle of Wight Oyster Company had the fisheries there for a number of years, but, not finding it profitable, abandoned the place, and recently it has been taken by a limited company for the purpose of artificial breeding. There are also extensive ponds, two of them being 15 and 9 acres respectively, which were planned by Mr. Giles, the late M.P. for Southampton, and carried out under the inspection of Capt. Johnson, the manager of the Isle of Wight Oyster Company. They are most complete, with sluices and double dock gates. These have been let to Messrs. Henderson, Hart, and Co., of London, who import their Anglo-Portugo oysters direct from the beds in the Tagus. These oysters have taken kindly to the waters that there is at least three inches growth upon some of them this season, and they have also thrown a quantity of spat. The haven is very muddy, and it is feared that if not worked will silt up the laying grounds, as they are principally artificially made.

Directory entries:

• 1865 Harrod Directory - Newtown, Henry Abrook, Oyster merchant.
• 1911 Kellys Directory - Newtown Oyster Fisheries - Thomas Paskins & Sons, proprietors.