Birchington Heritage Trust   - Newsletter   

The Shrimp Man of Birchington

by Bernard La Roche

In the late nineteenth century, the "Shrimp Man of Birchington" was one Frederick Joseph  Letley. This likeable chap was a character of some repute, with regards to his ability, achievements and dashing looks. With his ginger curly hair and Dickensian attire, he was, to say the least, striking.

Frederick Lettey was a principled man in his way and would, for reasons best known to himself, never launch his boat until one minute after midnight on a Sunday. During his active life as a fisherman, he would sell his whelks, shrimps, lobsters, winkles and the like from his stall on the pavement outside the Powell Arms. He earned his living by this means and brought up his family in what would be considered a reasonably good living for the day.

During his earlier years, he was brought up in the Medway area and, according to the archives of Rochester, was admitted in 1877 to the "Freedom of  the  Fisheries  of  the  River  Medway"  and registered as a Dredgerman in the same year. On his marriage certificate, he was classified as a mariner.

He lived in a thatched cottage which was reached down steps on the corner of Station Road and Crescent Road, where Forbuoys now stands (and Birchington Heritage Trust have their photographic display).

He kept his boat at Epple Bay and when it was out of action for a few days or needed repair work carried out, he would have it pulled up and put on a spare bit of land at St James's Terrace.

He was also a great pipe smoker and actually very knowledgeable. He claimed he never stopped learning from when he was born in 1856 until he died in 1940, some 84 years old.  His descendants still live in the village today.