Dave French learned to craft willow into lobster and crab pots on Devon’s south coast in the 1960s. Five generations of his family had fished off the pebble beaches of Budleigh Salterton, and French spent long winters watching as traditional ink-well-shaped ‘withy pots’ were prepared in time for the fishing season’s spring start.
Crafted for centuries by the calloused hands of seasoned fishers, withy pots are woven from natural materials like willow, hazel and tamarisk. The pots would biodegrade if lost at sea, while the number of lobsters and crabs caught was limited by the number of withy pots that could be fashioned by fishing families.
But the sudden introduction of mass-produced, long-lasting plastic fishing gear in the 1960s ensured
