AT 4.30am, in darkness, skipper Darren Passmore fires up the engine on Resolute and sails out of Brixham Harbour in Devon. The vessel is a small trawler, a minnow’s width under 32ft 9in from bow to stern, with a crew of two. An hour later, it’s being pitched on the sea like a toy, thick with the smell of grease and diesel, ankle-deep water sloshing around the deck. Mr Passmore and his crewmate, Dan Ready, release the net for the first of two five-hour trawls. Chains clank, shackles rattle, ropes are swallowed into the deep. Daylight arrives, bringing grey sky and a choppy sea. The waves eventually abate— mercifully—but it will be 5.30pm before we chug back into port, damp and dogged, bearing three red boxes of squid and lemon sole.
Small-scale fishing is not for the faint of constitution. The seafood being hoisted by Resolute’s trawl is premium produce, perhaps bound for arty restaurants where the Sauvignon Blanc is perfectly chilled and piano music tinkles in the background. As a profession, however, fishing on a small boat can be isolating, exhausting, unpredictable and dangerous—both physically and financially. It’s also a way of life that tends to exist in the margins. ‘Unless you live in a coastal port, you don’t really think about how your fish gets to the supermarket,’ points out Tina Barnes of The Seafarers’ Charity, which aims to improve the lives and livelihoods of those who work at sea.
Put some graphite in your pencil
Once used for daubing sheep, graphite went on to become as valuable as gold and wrote Keswick's place in history. Harry Pearson inhales that freshly sharpened-pencil smell
Dulce et decorum est
Michael Sandle is the Wilfred Owen of art, with his deeply felt sense of the futility of violence. John McEwen traces the career of this extraordinary artist ahead of his 88th birthday
Heaven is a place on earth
For the women of the Bloomsbury group, their country gardens were places of refuge, reflection and inspiration, as well as a means of keeping loved ones close by, discovers Deborah Nicholls-Lee
A haunt of ancient peace - The gardens at Iford Manor, near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire The home of the Cartwright-Hignett family
After recent renovations, this masterpiece of Harold Peto's garden-making must be counted one of the finest gardens in England
It's the plants, stupid
I WON my first prize for gardening when I was nine years old at prep school. My grandmother was delighted-it was she who had sent me the seeds of godetia, eschscholtzia and Virginia stock that secured my victory.
Pretty as a picture
The proliferation of honey-coloured stone cottages is part of what makes the Cotswolds so beguiling. Here, we pick some of our favourites currently on the market
How golden was my valley
These four magnificent Cotswold properties enjoy splendid views of hill and dale
Mere moth or merveille du jour?
Moths might live in the shadows of their more flamboyant butterfly counterparts, but some have equally artistic names, thanks to a 'golden' group, discovers Peter Marren
The magnificent seven
The Mars Badminton Horse Trials, the oldest competition of its kind in the world, celebrates its 75th anniversary this weekend. Kate Green chooses seven heroic winners in its history
Angels in the house
Winged creatures, robed figures and celestial bodies are under threat in a rural church. Jo Caird speaks to the conservators working to save northern Europe's most complete Romanesque wall paintings