WHAT ARE POTTED SHIMPS & WHAT IS THERE HISTORY

These are the small brown shrimps, caught in the inshore estuaries such as Morecambe bay, potted in spiced butter.

Potted shrimps keep longer than fresh, a week or so in a larder, longer in the fridge, because of the butter seal. When fresh frozen at the factory they do not loose thier taste or texture.

The fishermen's wives probably started potting shrimps for their husbands to take hawking

In the 1940's a Seafood factory known as Young's opened in the village of Flookburgh. At first the shrimps were collected daily from local fishermen and processed in the factory. From there they were sent daily by train to London to arrive fresh in the days before refrigerated transport.

Fishermen's wives would also sell the shrimps locally door to door out of baskets.

In 1959 local fishermen started their own Co-op in the village and opened a factory, with their own recipe for Potted Shrimps, naming the shrimps "Flookburgh Potted Shrimps". Over the years the members brought their shrimps to be potted, and sent cut all over the country to Hotels, Restaurants, Delicatessens and Wholesalers.

When the members of the Co-op decided to retire, Furness Fish, Poultry & Game Supplies bought the factory and name and transferred the production to a modernised factory at their business in Ulverston, where they are produced under the brand name of "Morecambe Bay Potted Shrimps"