The Oyster Man Of West Mersea

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The Oyster Man Of West Mersea

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Күн бұрын

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Tom Haward is an eighth generation oysterman farming the same ground his family have cultivated oysters on for more than three hundred years. They've seen off various crises and disasters and have always managed to leave an intact business for the next generation, but now with the twofold threat of the Coronavirus pandemic and a no-deal Brexit, the man entrusted with a three hundred year tradition may be the last Haward oysterman of West Mersea.
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Thanks to our generous Producer's Club: Alan Byron, Charlotte Davies, David Walters, Johnson Imode, Jos Bell, Kevin Williamson, Naomi, Nathan Lewis, Paul Dredge, Peter Boardman, Pierre Condou, Rachel Scott

Пікірлер: 66

@itchywitchy 3 жыл бұрын

Watching this after Brexit and seeing the damage being done to the fishing industry Tom's words ring true. It's so sad that businesses like Tom's are suffering. His assessment of Farage is spot on IMHO.

@karlmuller3690 3 жыл бұрын

itchywitchy - The question in my mind, is how did he vote?

@diegolove173 3 жыл бұрын

@@karlmuller3690 Exactly probably leave

@everydayjoe7786 3 жыл бұрын

Is it just me or is anyone else hoping for a followup on this beautifully told story?

@katedawson6020 3 жыл бұрын

Really enjoyed this. Love oysters and interested in the industry and its history. All the best. We fought so hard against Brexit and hope you survive it. All the best with the new generation.

@andreakirkby 3 жыл бұрын

Heartbreakingly beautiful photography to go with a sensitively told story.

@01jausten 3 жыл бұрын

Yes. It made me feel quite homesick too.

@andrewgolding2659 3 жыл бұрын

Beautifully shot and narrated, Tom, and with so much integrity and down-to earth truth. Lovely to be reminded of Mersea too.

@musitecture.vienna 3 жыл бұрын

Bravo Tom, a true Merseaite treasure. Keep it up, hope you and the family weather the coming storm. My greetings to you all back home. Great work too BylineTV!

@TheAurabolt 3 жыл бұрын

I absolutely love Richard Haward’s oysters. I have visited their Borough market store for the past 5 years whenever I’m in the area

@BagpixUk 3 жыл бұрын

Beautifully done - more please!

@chrisgavin 3 жыл бұрын

What a great film. Well done to everybody involved in making this. Thanks!

@gzk6nk 3 жыл бұрын

So why did they vote for their own demise? How stupid is that? He obviously has Farage weighed up yet the fishing industry supported brexit.

@carmeljane1993 3 жыл бұрын

Oh Tom, so very sad. I hope you and your wonderful oyster business survive the government's folly. Very best of luck with your new baby on the way.

@438harry 3 жыл бұрын

Pro quality camera work. Hope Mum n Dad ( Richard n Heather) are keeping well....

@JaywalkingTheWorld 2 жыл бұрын

Nicely done.

@RussellChapman99 3 жыл бұрын

Same Haward family as Mathew and his mother Monica? Mersea oysters are really very good. It's great that there are still a few locals left on the island.

@LarissaMilgate 3 ай бұрын

Interesting to watch Tom. We share ancestors. Zeb Milgate was my great grandfather.

@hugogreen4916 3 жыл бұрын

Can’t imagine that he and his fellows are really feeling it now . And if so, I’d be interested what they see as the future

@julietgeorge9258 Жыл бұрын

Is there an update on how Tom and his family have been faring since the passage of Brexit? I had not heard of Nigel Farage ("Mr. Bexit") until I viewed this excellent film (today - 26 October 2022), but am catching up by reading. I am writing from the U.S.A. and have an historian's interest in West Mersea Island because of earlier research and contacts there. In my opinion, Brexit is a perverse and pigheaded project, and I was horrified when its promoters succeeded.

@jamieashton3835 3 жыл бұрын

Brexshit reality hits home

@JohyeahM 3 жыл бұрын

Especially when you were thick enough to vote for it.

@RedRupert64 3 жыл бұрын

I live a few miles from West Mersea, but it's rare to see oysters for sale. It would be a good idea to concentrate on the local market. Oyster fisherman in Arcachon, France also struggle; it's not an easy business.

@FuriousImp 3 жыл бұрын

"Concentrate on the local market" what do you mean by that? They are being sold to people who like oysters. You can't change demand.

@RedRupert64 3 жыл бұрын

@@FuriousImp I would eat oysters locally if I ever saw them being offered. To expand the local market would require imagination and the ability to think outside the box. Brits are keen to eat them in France, so why not so much when at home?

@FuriousImp 3 жыл бұрын

@@RedRupert64 Ring up Tom Haward, ask for an interview and record it. I'd love to see how that goes. Seriously I'm not being facetious.

@RedRupert64 3 жыл бұрын

@@FuriousImp I'm a retired entrepreneur, not a business troubleshooter. Over the years I've found myself in similar situations; sometimes I've found a way out, but others I haven't. I dare say others could have found ways out where I couldn't.

@FuriousImp 3 жыл бұрын

@@RedRupert64 I'm not asking you to troubleshoot, I'm asking you to reality check.

@euphonyx3514 3 жыл бұрын

I admire this man

@budapestkeletistationvoices 3 жыл бұрын

He can now export to Australia

@gzk6nk 3 жыл бұрын

They won. They need to get over it.

@andrewrobinson2565 3 жыл бұрын

Great to see the man behind the voice and the environment where his oysters grow. Of course he can still sell to Taiwan under the "Global Britain Project". We are 3km from the Etang de Thau🇫🇷.

@karlmuller3690 3 жыл бұрын

Andrew Robinson - So glad your 3kms from this or that place or thing, because Taiwan's just a bit further up the road than that, mate!! And do you think Taiwan will let existing export contracts with the EU and EU countries be jepodised by Sefood imports from the UK? Why should they import oysters from the UK when they have "Clean green Australia and New Zealand" thousand of kms closer, and (probably) so much cheaper than your Oysters or any other seafood products could hope to be?

@andrewrobinson2565 3 жыл бұрын

@@karlmuller3690 I thought you'd Google "Etang de Thau". Das war echt doof von mir... zu denken, daß ein bekloppter mitmachen würde.. 🙄🤣

@karlmuller3690 3 жыл бұрын

@@andrewrobinson2565 - Mate, I'm sorry, but only my online name is German, not me I'm an Australian. Haben ich kline deuche cann ich spreken nicht ... I think that's right I hope it is, I'm only really guessing.

@karlmuller3690 3 жыл бұрын

@@andrewrobinson2565 - Can you tell me if I'm on the money with the German? You've got an English name though, why did you think that automatically, "oh, this guy must be to"

@andrewrobinson2565 3 жыл бұрын

@@karlmuller3690 I'm French but have s similarly confusing name.. Forget it.... The Etang de Thau is a lake in France where (some of the best) oysters and mussels are produced. We don't need British stuff either. NEVER TRUST A POLITICIAN.

@jannetteberends8730 3 жыл бұрын

Once I’ve eaten an oyster. And I’m convinced I felt it cringe in my mouth. Never again.

@torehaaland6921 3 жыл бұрын

Today is February 26th 2021. Is this business still there today?

@Matt-ur3dm 3 жыл бұрын

I believe he phoned James o Brien to talk about how it is going. You can listen to it on KZfaq

@marcuszodiac69 3 жыл бұрын

Oysters taste of sewage.

@MelkorPT 3 жыл бұрын

4:15 welp

@akingdom4mypeople343 3 ай бұрын

First 2 min about the oyster what a load of bollicks, bottom feeders water filters I'd never touch them. Might as well eat carp.

@nejafeja 3 жыл бұрын

so sad

@cbaten2 3 жыл бұрын

I wish Tom, his family and his colleagues all the resilience and lucky escape they need now. All of us already knew it was going to be his pessimistic version all along. And now of course the unimaginable has come true. The sad thing is that the pandemic already took whatever fat existed in their business. Even sadder to see that the current eton-chums at the top even have mishandled the pandemic to such an extent, that you might start to wonder whether they deliberately did so to be able to mask this Brexit sell-out to the ERG financers and the like. They definitely use the present pandemic as cover to its maximal extend to fool the voters into voting for them again. This really hurts. UK,. get rid of the district-based election system and, with this, this one-party-rules-them-all political abuse. If not, old money will keep exploiting you all until total collapse.

@craigmala 3 жыл бұрын

If there was a no deal why would our goods have tariffs and the EU's good not? a no deal would mean WTO rules so their would be tariffs on EU goods.

@tomhaward2540 3 жыл бұрын

Because the Government has already said they are placing zero tariffs on imports in the event of a no deal.

@rt0935 3 жыл бұрын

The EU is the biggest trade bloc in the planet and you can´t be the winner in a negotiation, simple as that. This is the real world, not Unicorn Cuckservative Land. In spite of what brexidiots told people, your country desperately needs the EU market more than the other way around so you will always have to make bigger concessions. WHY is the fishing industry worse off after Brexit? Because people in the UK don´t eat fish and so the Scottish and Welsh fishermen don´t even have the proccesing plants to transform their product. Now that because of third countries red tape they don´t have the right to catch it and simply send it to mainland Europe (where the infraestructure exists because we care about good food) it happens that their way of living is in danger. Who did the think they would sell it to? Mozambique? Japan? It serves them well for voting Leave.

@FuriousImp 3 жыл бұрын

@@rt0935 And there you have it. Simply asking the question why they voted to leave often gets me so much hate, it's amazing and a little frightening to see them foaming at the mouth with hatred.