Making traditional prawn withy pots is not for the faint-fingered, as KAREN YOUNG discovers when she visits a retired fisherman
Willow or ‘withy’ pots are traditional traps that fishermen would make in the winter and then use to catch prawns, crabs and lobsters in the warmer months. While the craft is believed to be centuries old, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when and where they first originated as, historically, the process has been very poorly documented.
In 2019, less than 20 people were known to be keeping the tradition alive along the shores and small neighbouring islands of England, Wales and Ireland. It’s therefore no surprise that withy pot making is among 63 traditional heritage crafts currently listed as ‘critically endangered’ by the Heritage Crafts Association.
And as far as he is aware, Jamie (James) Lawrence is one of very few fishermen, if not the only one, who is still making traditional Sussex withy pots designed to catch prawns.
Jamie’s family has been fishing off Selsey Bill in West Sussex since the mid-1700s. Like generations before him, he learnt to make pots by watching his father as he was growing up. “I made my first prawn pot when I was 12,” Jamie recalls. When asked if it was a success, he replies: “No – it was a disaster. It had huge gaps and fell to pieces after about three weeks. A lobster pot would have been easier to make but my dad wouldn’t have wanted me to waste bigger rods while I was learning.”
A ‘rod’ is the name Jamie gives to the thicker willow sticks or ‘withies’ that form the vertical lines in the pot. The smaller the ocean-dwelling creature the pot was intended for, the smaller the rods and the smaller the gap left between each one (no bigger than the little finger, in the case of a well-made prawn pot).
Like many traditional crafts, withy pot making requires just a handful of rudimentary tools and materials, but it takes years of practice to master. Jamie starts the process by inserting 11 rods into a round wooden ‘swedge’, which will form the mouth or ‘ache’ in the top of the pot that the prawns crawl into.
Smaller withies or ‘waling’ are then weaved in and out of the rods horizontally, before more rods are inserted vertically and carefully bent back on themselves to start forming the top and the sides of the pot. Mak
