Founded around 1885 by JJ Armisted the Solway fishery is one of, if not the, oldest fish farms in Britain. J Armisted was a pioneer in the world of Pisciculture, lecturing and writing books on the subject as well as running his fish farming business here at Solway.   Back in the late 1800's little was known regarding fishculture so most of Armisteads' work was new, making his studies even more impressive.



The old black and white photos here are from his book  "AN ANGLER'S PARADISE and how to obtain it"  published in 1895.  In it he details his work, mostly with Brown trout, through from preparing the nursery ponds, and not cutting the grass around the bankings to promote insect life, to stripping the mature fish 3 years later.

His work on the hatchery side of the farm is certainly the most interesting.  He studied the ova and alevins in great detail, making intricate observations and line drawings of their physiology and behaviour.

He was responsible for the safe transportation of ova around the world, introducing Trout to many "Colonies". The ova were shipped in small crates with moss and ice layers to keep them moist in transport. So many ova were shipped that he took to growing the moss on site at Solway

In another publication by Armistead he gives prices for the Brown trout ova and fry.  At £4. 0s. 0d for 10,000 ova (in 1895) these were not inexpensive.  The feeding-fry were priced at £10 for 10,000.  Today you can buy Trout ova in bulk at around £70 for 10,000.   He didn't stop at just Brown trout, listed are various salmonids such as Rainbow, American (brook trout?), Salmon and Lake trout as well as Char and Grayling.

His obvious success at salmonids must have urged him on to more diversity at Solway.  He could now offer Coarse fish such as Carp, Tench, Roach and even Black Bass.  To complement the wide range of species available, Solway also sold aquatic plants, crustaceans and molluscs, fish food (in biscuit form), hatchery equipment and eel traps.

Once all these things had been purchased, and hopefully put to good use in rearing some trout, the final purchase would have to be fishing tackle, made by Hardy in this case, but available from Solway!  When in full production Solway had around one hundred earthen ponds in use on the farm to accommodate the many different species hatched and grown by Armistead. Today with the planting of softwood trees by the Forestry Commission, and the consequential reduction in water supply, we only are able to run 16 ponds.

We still have the yearling barn and chapel pictured in the "preparing the yearlings" photo above as well as the old hatchery. Unfortunately the farmhouse was destroyed by fire some years latter but the farm as a whole still retains a lot of it's fascinating history.