Explore Your Archive: 4 Dandy Row
- 13th November 2014
The Webb Family who lived at no 4 were one of the many fishing families that lived in the area.
Isaac Webb baptised in 1790 was the founder of this fishing dynasty. He was an apprentice fisherman. He completed his apprenticeship and received his freedom of the City in 1812. He married and had 11 children. All five of his sons worked within the fishing community.
He died on the 1st May 1866 at the age of 75 having been admitted into Nash’s Alms House 5 years earlier. His death was reported in the Worcestershire Journal. It states the he was ‘much respected’ and that he was ‘at the Battle of Waterloo’.
According to The Waterloo Medal Roll of 1815 on Ancestry there was a Private Isaac Webb in the 2nd Battalion 3rd regiment of Foot Guards.
His first son Isaac became a Severn Steam Tug Captain and according the 1871 census his tug was called ‘Enterprise. It carried coal along the Severn.
Issac died in 1909 in Wyatts Alms Houses in Friar Street Worcester. In his will he left his son a photograph of himself, his wife and Grand-father and a picture of a punt. This is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water.
The Fishing industry on the Severn came to an end in 1929 when netting of fish on the Severn was prohibited by Parliament.
By Angie Downton
Interesting about the tug-boat 'Enterprise.' Elgar always said that he taught himself to read by spelling out the names of the Severn tugboats. The ones he particularly remembered were 'Enterprise,' Reliance' and 'Resolution.' Not a bad motto!
Kevin Allen