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Tablo Pitt with his oyster smack Thistle, His great grandson
David still works for Maldon Oyster co.
was first established in 1960 and was originally run as a
cooperative between several local fishermen, under the
leadership of Clarrie Devall. During the hard winter of
1963, most oyster beds in Essex were devastated by ice and
the company became dormant for a few years, until Mr Devall
started growing new stocks of Pacific oysters in Goldhanger
Creek.
In the early eighties, Mr Devall took on David Coward–Talbott
as a partner and they successfully grew several million
Pacific oysters on the traditional beds in Goldhanger Creek
and established some small quantities of native, flat
oysters in the main Blackwater River. |
Richard Emans & David Coward-Talbott
After Mr Devall’s death in 2002, Mr Coward-Talbott formed the Maldon Oyster and Seafood Company with Richard Emans, a local businessman. The partnership was set up with the sole intention of revitalising oyster farming in the River Blackwater to its former glory.
In December 2007 Mr Coward-Talbott retired from the company
leaving it in the control of Richard & Caroline Emans to run
as a family company.
For several centuries the oyster beds of the River Blackwater have supplied native oysters and native oyster brood stock to the world famous Colchester Oyster Company, which either marketed the oysters or grew on the young oysters in the River Colne for marketing the following season.
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Gary Allen Tending Native Oyster
The Maldon Oyster and Seafood Company now has 3500 acres of the River Blackwater under their management and has re-established a native oyster fishery as well as being one of the largest producers of Pacific oysters in the UK. |
Our Purification and Holding Facility
A new modern purification and packing facility
for bivalves, with a live holding system for crustaceans,
has been built at Cock Clarks near Maldon. With this system
we can hold oysters, mussels or even cockles in a
temperature controlled environment to achieve the optimum
purification for a minimum of 48 hours in summer and winter.
We were the first oyster farm in Europe to install a CFC
free environmentally friendly York C Pak heat pump to
control the temperature of our tank system.
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Our packing line
One of our primary aims is to utilise this Essex estuary to its best advantage without harming the delicate eco-system and its salt marshes. For it is an area swathed in natural beauty, supports a wide variety of flora and fauna and plays an important role providing wintering grounds for many migratory birds. The company has also invested in an eco-harvester vessel, for dredging shellfish without causing significant damage to the seabed.
The area is now enshrined as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and is also protected and registered under the European Union’s Shellfish Waters Directive (79/923), whereby it has the distinction of been registered as one of only a very few shell fish growing waters in the UK.
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We are constantly looking at research on to molluscs and crustaceans and have as an adviser Dr Eric Edwards OBE, who is a past director of the
Shellfish Association of Great Britain.
In July 2003, Maldon Oyster and Seafood Company were the first shell fish farm in the UK to be awarded Organic status by the Organic Food Federation.
Since Maldon is less than 50 miles from London, most of the oysters are sold there. Billingsgate Fish Market is one of our main outlets but we also supply restaurants and markets throughout the UK, with some of our production being exported to places such as Dubai, Istanbul, Hong Kong and Singapore.
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