Channel View Publishing Plymouth
How it came about
A unique collection of colour photography was started as a fishing boat identification aid by Stewart Lenton who until recently was a volunteer watch keeper at Rame Head NCI (National Coast Watch Institution) station Cornwall. All boats are logged as they pass National Coast Watch Stations, but the name and number of fishing boats are often obscured by nets etc. hence around the end of 2002 Stewart started making his photographic identification aid.
The photographs were admired and requested by other NCI stations, and Stewart soon found himself supplying his photography not only to them, but also to Harbour Masters, Coastguards, Lifeboat crews, boat owners, and the like. Thus he has attempted to photograph every registered fishing vessel of any size or type in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly making this collection of photographs unique in its comprehensiveness, and a useful reference for anyone with a need to know about fishing boats in the South West peninsular.
Many who saw the collection, including commercial fishermen, expressed a wish not only to acquire particular photographs but to see or own the whole in book form. The cost of printing two books between them containing a total of around 1,250 colour photographs of boats alone, presented a major problem. Channel View Plymouth Publishing was born of a need to keep the retail cost to affordable proportions and launched in Autumn 2006 with two volumes of books (The Fishing Ports and Boats of Cornwall & The Fishing Ports & Boats of Devon).
Following this a request was made from two bookshops each in fishing ports for a booklet about fishing boat registration. A short booklet with a long title was produced in September 2008 to answer the question -
What is the Meaning of the Letters and Numbers on Fishing Boats?
Recemtly Liz Lenton has produced a book
'TT Cats and their Fishing Families'
and to be published early next year is The Fishing Ports and Boats of Wales