Kippers

Craster has always been a fishing village, but this harbour was not built until 1906. It was a thriving fishing harbour, but was also used for exporting stone, which was quarried further up the hill.

Craster’s real fame comes from its smokehouses. At the turn of the century the North Sea was teeming with herring and some twenty boats supplied four kipper/herring yards in the village. Fresh kippers were dispatched to all over the country, including to Billingsgate Market. The fish were gutted by ‘fishwives’ or ‘herring girls’, who lived in ramshackle buildings called ‘kip houses’, only suitable for sleeping in. Hence . . . ‘having a kip’. We were delighted to find that out today!!
  
Most of the buildings around the harbour edge were once smokehouses, but only one remains today. People come from long distances to buy kippers. Kippers and smoked salmon were bought today!