THERE was certainly something fishy going on at Upton-upon-Severn in the 1600s and 1700s as far as Worcester people were concerned.

The fisherfolk of the Faithful City were up in arms at being robbed of a significant slice of their livelihoods by the unscrupulous salmon netting activities of men in Upton and other Severnside communities downstream from the city.

They were pulling such huge hauls of salmon from the river that they were severely depleting catches by Worcester's fishermen, who made their living in those times from the bountiful supplies of salmon then in the Severn.

From earliest times, fishing was significant in the economy of riverside communities such as Upton and Worcester, but rivalry and ill-feeling was frequent, particularly when fishermen in the lower reaches prevented salmon getting upstream.

In 1613, hundreds of Worcestershire and Shropshire fishermen petitioned the Quarter Sessions to claim their livelihoods were in jeopardy because the men of Upton, Ripple, Holdfast and other villages were "working with forestalling nets which reach from one side of the river to the other and from the top to the bottom thereof so that they take multitudes of fish."

Even so, the problem kept recurring and by 1714, it had become profitable to catch Severn salmon of "unsizeable lengths and at unseasonable times" for sale to fishmongers in London and other cities.

However, given the state of the roads and with journeys taking days, the fish may well have passed their "sell by date" on arrival.

This trade meant those dabbling in it were violating an Act of Parliament which made it a crime to take any salmon weighing less than six pounds from the Severn or Wye.

Even in the 19th Century, illegal nets were still being seized by the authorities along these two rivers.

Severn Street - formerly Frog Lane - was the hub of Worcester's salmon industry for centuries. It was the home of several generations of families whose earnings came from casting their nets into the nearby river, particularly at Diglis.

Registers in 1851 showed 74 people engaged in the fishing industry living in Severn Street.

Berrow's Worcester Journal, the world's oldest surviving newspaper, reported in 1856 that abundant salmon were still being "hawked about on donkeys' backs and sold at sixpence a pound".

Even as late as 1910, more than 24,000 salmon a year were being netted from the Severn.

The origins of Upton-upon-Severn are fairly obscure, though an ancient charter of 680 records a grant of land at Ripple to the monk Frithwold. Later, around 960, Upton fell into the ownership of the Bishop of Worcester.

It's believed the first river bridge at Upton - a wooden structure - was built in the 1400s though it was replaced early in the 1600s by a more attractive and substantial span. Alas, this wooden bridge was destroyed during the English Civil War and had to be re-built afterwards.

It seems that by the 18th Century, Upton Bridge had become an eyesore, and records reveal that, in 1733, a John Dickins even had a pig sty on it!

By the 19th Century, the bridge was in an appalling state and considerable sums of money had to be spent on its repair between 1817 and 1840.

However, it collapsed during a high flood in 1851 and was replaced three years later by a flat bridge which many considered "most ugly". This span originally had a drawbridge section, but this was replaced in 1883 by a swing bridge section to let through larger vessels.

The present metal bridge at Upton was built at the start of the Second World War.

In Victorian times and well into the 20th Century, Upton-upon-Severn was able to boast of more pubs per head of population than perhaps anywhere across the nation, and it is still well endowed with hostelries today!