Laver gathering at Appledore

The photograph taken many years ago shows women carrying sacks of laver (‘edible seaweed’). Seaweed gathering or laver-making has been carried on at Appledore for generations.

Forty or fifty years ago the seaweed was gathered mostly by women who used to walk from Appledore to the ‘back’ of the Burrows, pick about half-a-hundred weight and carry it home in the manner shown. When it became scarce at the back of the Burrows, the pickers would go further afield, even as far along the coast as Peppercombe.

Gazette article 6 July 1948