IT'S come as a bit of a surprise to me to discover that as comparatively recently as 50 years ago netting of salmon in the River Severn was still being permitted.

For centuries, fishermen had been allowed each year to catch many thousands of salmon with trawl nets dragged by hand through the river waters. In fact, many of Worcester's salmon fishing families lived in the shadow of the Cathedral in what is now Severn Street.

Below Diglis Weir was one of their main salmon netting grounds, but the practice had the inevitable effect over the decades of seriously depleting salmon stocks in the Severn.

The Journal reported in 1952 on a meeting of the Severn River Board where the ban on salmon netting was, at last, considerably extended "in an effort to stop any further deterioration of the Severn as a salmon producing river."

The board decided to expand the ban on netting to the long length of the Severn between Farmilode in Gloucestershire and Tewkesbury. The prohibition had already been in operation for some years on all the Severn upstream of Tewkesbury.

The board was reminded that between 1906 and 1910, the average yearly catch of salmon from the Severn had been approximately 25,000, but in 1951 it was down to just 3,000.

"Worcester Alderman T.S Bennett expressed surprise that salmon netting was allowed at all. 'About 25 years ago I was compelled to give up my rights at Lower Wick for very meagre compensation, and I am amazed that some people are still allowed to get away with it after 25 years,' he told the river board.

"Lt.Col Goodman, the board chairman, commented that the Severn never had been nor, he thought, ever would be 'a great rod fishing river,' but netting had provided a valuable source of food during the Second World War."