Description

Admin History:

Hull Fish Merchants’ Protection Association was established in 1890, and unlike many other similar associations, was incorporated from the outset. Created as a ‘not for profit’ company, it was limited by guarantees and not by shares and had 12 directors. Its main aims were to: - protect it’s members business activities; ensure their accommodation on the Dock estate; endeavour to maintain supplies of fish and organise distribution. The association went from strength to strength and after a period of sustained growth, it had its highest membership after World War 2 with some 427 members.

The association’s first secretary in 1890 was Walter Scott and the organisation was based at Cogan House, Bowlalley Lane. By 1897 it had moved to County Buildings, Land of Green Ginger and in 1906 had moved to St. Andrews Dock, with James Myers as the secretary. In 1925, the association was still at St. Andrews Dock, at Billingsgate Chambers, with J.E. Plowman as secretary. After the closure of St. Andrews Dock in 1975, the association moved its registered offices to Humberside Chambers, on Albert Dock and later the Diane Buildings.

It then had a period where it changed it registered headquarters quite regularly. In 2001 they moved to the Isberg Buildings on Kingston Street, then in 2010 it was to Strickland Street. Subsequently they were based at the Louis Pearlman Centre on Goulton Street, Hull before moving again, this time to Hawthorne Avenue, off Hessle Road in 2011. However, by the latter part of the 20th century, the association had begun to run into difficulties due to a variety of different factors, such as the effects of World War 2 and the loss of so many men into the armed forces, railway re-organisation, the closure of Hull's St. Andrew’s Dock and the various ‘Cod Wars’of the 1950s and 1970s. By the end of this last conflict with Iceland, membership of the asociation had dropped down to just 60 members. Although it tried to reinvent itself with new initiatives, such as the Fishgate fish auction, the company was officially dissolved in 2014.

The Hull Fish Merchants’ Company Ltd was a company formed by the Hull Fish Merchants’ Protection Association to administer the warehousing and transport facilities for land transport. Its directors were elected from within the Association. Incorporated in 1940, it ceased to function on 30th June 1993.

The Humber Frozen Fish Distributing Company Ltd was founded in 1940, and was one of a number of distribution companies set up by the government. The company was to acquire supplies of fish from the Ministry of Food or any other department of HM Government and distribute it to the Hull Fish Merchants’ Protection Association Ltd and the Grimsby United Fish Merchants and Fish Curers Association.

The Hull Fish Forum, which included members of the Hull Fish Merchants’ Protection Association, the city council and other interested parties, was set up in 1996. It changed its name to Hull Fish Auction in 1997, which was itself dissolved in April 2017. In 2002, the company opened a new electronic auction facility named Fishgate on William Wright Dock in Hull which closed in 2011 after it experienced supply problems. This building was eventually taken over by Cranswick Country Foods.

The Hull Fish Merchants’ Welfare Fund Committee was founded in 1935, and changed its name in 1936 to the Hull Fish Merchants’ Welfare Guild. It was taken over by the Hull Fish

Merchants’ Protection Association in 1961 after the guild had ceased making payments of assistance since 1957 for financial reasons. The charity was finally wound up in 2000.

The Federation of British Port Wholesale Fish Merchants Associations was founded in the late 1920s and had members variously from Hull, Milford Haven, Aberdeen, Lowestoft, Grimsby, Fleetwood and the Sea Fish Industry Authority (SFIA).

The Hull Fish Meal and Oil Company was originally founded as the Hull Fish Manure and Oil Company, in 1891, with the change of naming happening in 1919. From 1934 its cod liver oil manufacturing was transferred to British Cod Liver Oil Producers Ltd. In 1976 the Hull Fish Meal Company was registered again, this time in Grimsby, before being wound up in 2002.

Description:

Registers of Directors, managers, members and secretaries; Minutes of Directors meetings; Minutes of AGM's and Management Committee meetings; annual reports and accounts; Memorandums and Articles of Association; Board papers and correspondence.