THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

In summer the harbour would be crowded with Scotch, and East Anglian, and Cornish herring boats, their brown sails unfurled and hanging limp from their masts to dry, their nets draped over the quay-side rails, their crews standing about the fish market, speaking what was for the local fishermen, and for me, an almost foreign tongue. All these men wore differently patterned guernseys, according to the ports they hailed from. Some wore hard-felted sou’westers, others Tam-o’-Shanters, and brightly coloured scarves. And many of the older men had gold rings in their ears and long hair, so that to me they looked like pirates.

Leo Walmsley in Turner/Panorama, 1944