Tributes have been paid following the death of a Somerset resident who was often billed as “the last mud-horse fisherman in the world”.
For many years the media bestowed that title on Adrian Sellick’s father, Brendan, who appeared in newspapers and on TV around the world, pursuing his unique calling on the Bristol Channel mud-flats. But the accolade was taken on by Adrian, who took on the work after Brendan became too old to push the wooden mud-horse the mile or two out to the nets.
Archaeologists learned that mud-horse fishermen have been working the rich tidal zone of Bridgwater Bay for literally thousands of years, after remains of an early mud-horse were found buried deep in the peat of the Somerset Levels. The well-preserved wooden find was nearly identical to the rudimentary home-made models used by the Sellicks.
The only practical and safe way to get across the deep Bridgwater Bay mud and bring in a catch was to utilise a kind of wooden sledge. Brendan experimented with other means, including a skimobile, but the basic mud-horse, consisting of a single wooden skid, a trestle and a wicker basket, proved to be the only means of transport usable. The mud-horse fishermen would lean on the sledge and push it forward.
Brendan, who died in 2021, had recalled a time when there were a dozen mud-horse fishermen working regularly on the mud-flats, but he and Adrian were the only ones plying the trade for the past 40 years – and they often complained that the gigantic seawater cooling systems at Hinkley Point nuclear power station were sucking in all the small fry and, in doing so, badly depleting Bristol Channel fish stocks.
Adrian Stanley Sellick, who was born on March 6 1958, passed away at home on Friday December 20, aged 66.
His daughter, Charlotte said: “Dad fished with the mud-horse for 54 years, from the age of 12. However he remembered going out as young as seven or eight, sometimes at night when his grandfather would sit on the beach shining the torch out to the nets for dad to see.
“He would fish in all weather, apart from thunder and lightning. He remembered being out one day with his father when a storm came and lightning struck only feet away from them. From that day on, he would never go out in a thunderstorm again.
“On a very high tide, Dad enjoyed going out deep past the shrimp nets to the gill nets where he would catch fish such as bass, cod, skate and Dover sole. This was always a risky task because the tide could easily cut you off – but despite the risk, this was one thing he enjoyed the most.
“He would also say he loved the quiet and solitude when out there and even if he had no catch that day, he never saw it as wasted time because it was his place and he could just enjoy the surroundings and the nature around him.”
In later years, due to the decline in the fish stocks, Adrian worked nights at a local factory, which allowed him to continue mud-horse fishing during the day. He would often get just four hours’ sleep.
“Keeping the tradition and the legacy of the mud-horse fishing was at the core of his heart,” says Charlotte.
So does Adrian’s passing mark the final end of mud-horse fishing? Apparently not. His son Cane hopes to carry on mud-horse fishing in his spare time “to keep the tradition going for many years to come”.
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