The early morning sun is already packing a warm punch as the Mary Amelia chugs out of the Leigh Creek and into the mouth of the Thames Estuary. The added one-two of thick humidity creates a slick of sweat clinging to my brow as I stand at the bow, watching as the boat deftly navigates the shallow, tidal waters. As we make our way further from shore, a welcome sea breeze cuts through the thick, cloying air, and I marvel at how peaceful it feels despite the fact that we’re at the mouth of one of the most storied rivers in the world, and just a few miles from central London.

And yet, this little pocket of brackish water is home to one of the country’s most extensive cockle fisheries. The bivalve mollusc used to be a pillar of the British diet, fished for hundreds of years and eaten everywhere from pubs in the East End to high-end restaurants in Mayfair. Somewhere along the way, though, we lost our appetite for this endemic ingredient, instead exporting much of what we fish to the likes of Spain and Portugal where there is still an appreciation for everyday consumption of shellfish and seafood in general, not to mention a multitude of robust canning facilities.

The statistics around our consumption of seafood and shellfish in England are baffling. As I was researching for an article published in Foodism back in 2022, I discovered that while we export around 73% of the fish we catch in British waters, 80% of the seafood we eat is imported. Our taste has evolved to prioritise what is known as ‘the big five’ of the ocean: cod, haddock, salmon, tuna, and prawns.

Cockles being processed at the Osborne's facility

Hannah Maule-ffinch

The Mary Amelia coming in from fishing

Hannah Maule-ffinch

I’m in Leigh-on-Sea visiting Osborne’s, a historic fishery that has been harvesting cockles from these waters since 1880. One of just 14 fisheries granted a licence to operate within the Thames Estuary fishery, Osborne’s was a big driver in helping the entire fishery obtain Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification, satisfying robust sustainability requirements. On the Mary Amelia with me are two observers from the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCA), alongside Bex from the MSC and Graham Osborne, one of the directors of Osborne’s and a descendant of Thomas George Osborne who started Osborne Bros back at the tail end of the 19th century.

As we near Southend Pier – stretching seemingly endlessly out into the water – I chat to the duo from IFCA about the MSC certification. I’m curious whether there were any additional requirements from them beyond what IFCA was already mandating for them to achieve certification. They said there were just two – they wanted a scientific peer review of IFCA’s stock assessment research and a thorough recording of any bycatch obtained by the fisheries. Both were logged, and, eventually, in December 2019, the Thames Cockle Fishery was certified.

These queries – plus a few others – are a big reason why I’m out floating on the Mary Amelia estuary. Because, while there are many methods that can be used in cockle fishing, the one used by Osborne’s and the other companies on the Thames Estuary is dredging. It is, famously, a fairly disruptive process, for a few reasons. Firstly, as Ben King from Pesky Fish said when I interviewed him in 2022, “It’s like dragging a rake through the ground.” Secondly, the dredge has no ability to differentiate between what it is trying to catch and the unfortunate bycatch that may get trapped within it unintentionally, most of which is simply thrown away. The impact can be catastrophic for many habitats.

The bivalve mollusc used to be a pillar of the British diet, fished for hundreds of years

As with most things in life though, dredges exist on a spectrum – and the one used by Osborne’s is designed to mitigate this impact as much as possible. There are limits on its size and the depth it can penetrate the seafloor. It uses a water suction method to extract the cockles from their position (usually buried just a few millimetres in the sand). The grate within the dredge has a minimum size as per both IFCA and MSC guidelines to ensure they aren’t catching any undersized cockles, in order to maintain and foster population growth. Crucially, by-catch is extremely low as the habitats they fish in tend to only be occupied by cockles. Alongside this, there are strict regulations on when they can fish in order to allow the habitat and populations the time to regenerate – just a few months each year, and only on specific days within each week – and each fishery has a cap on the amount of cockles they can catch each day to help counter overfishing.

While not environmentally perfect, it’s a thoughtful approach to a fishery that previously involved back-breaking and, at times, deadly work. Graham and his cousin and co-director, Andrew, show us an example of what this used to look like – as recently as when the two began working for the family business. Cockle pickers would be boated (or driven, depending on the geography of the area) out to sandbars and sandflats. They would then have to rake through the sand, manually extract the cockles and carry them back in two buckets that they hung across their shoulders.

In 2004, 21 migrant cockle pickers hired out by gangs drowned – with two more suspected to have drowned whose bodies were never found – while doing just that off the coast of Morecambe Bay. It was one of the biggest disasters of its kind in the UK, and threw open a lid on not only the illegal gang activity in the area taking advantage of desperate migrants, but also the free-for-all that was taking place in regards to cockle picking in the area at the time. According to the BBC, when the disaster happened there would often be hundreds, if not thousands, of people picking cockles off the beds. New regulations brought in soon after the deaths means now just 150 individuals are licensed to commercially gather cockles in Cumbria’s Morecambe Bay.

Sustainability is a complicated term, and one that involves a lot of grey areas. When it comes to cockle dredging, observing their boat in action showed me that Osborne’s are doing everything possible to keep the automation of cockle picking as environmentally, economically and socially sustainable as possible, and are leaps and bounds ahead of many other fisheries within the UK that are not MSC certified. They have also helped to centralise this process with the opening of their on-site processing facility in 2021.

The big question is, though, with cockles once being so central to our British diet, who is cooking with them these days? Sweet and nutty with a delicate saltiness, cockles are most commonly served doused in vinegar and white pepper – in fact, that’s Graham Osborne’s favourite way to eat them, straight off the production line. As ways of eating have changed in the UK, with the abundance of fast food and a reliance on supermarkets fundamentally changing our diet, these once classic dishes have become less so. As Graham says, there was once a time when cockles were being shipped by the truckload down to London. Now, the majority of theirs make their way to Portugal and Spain.

There does seem to be something of a cockle renaissance occurring, though (a cocklessaince, if you will). While the average diner might not be clambering for them in the supermarket or making a daily pilgrimage to their local seafood shack, in some of the country’s best kitchens this humble shellfish has been seeing an uptick in popularity. “I think people are understanding the need to eat more sustainably harvested shellfish as part of a diet that’s not only good for yourself, but good for nature and the climate, too,” says Elliot Kett from Kelp Canteen in Falmouth, Cornwall. “I think people love the tradition of it. We have so many customers say to us that they always used to get cockles as a kid but haven’t seen them for sale anywhere in ages,” he adds. At Kelp Canteen, Kett serves cockles in a range of ways, including selling them in the classic style for takeaway in pots with vinegar and white pepper, alongside using them in dishes like handmade pappardelle pasta with local cockles and a garlic, parsley and seaweed butter sauce and whole plaice topped with a cockle and herb butter sauce.

In 1969 they said the cockle fishery would be finished in ten years, and yet here we are

In London meanwhile, at The Rake (the new kitchen residency at The Gun pub in Hackney) they steam their cockles, before pickling them overnight and then battering and deep frying them on a skewer with mussels. “It would be easy to say that we have this dish on the menu just for the cultural importance of it, that English and Welsh seaside cuisine has a wealth of unique and interesting recipes that should be conserved and brought to a modern crowd,” says Jay Claus, one of the three co-founders. “But while this is absolutely true, our reasoning is more the selfish pursuit of that feeling of nostalgia. Having grown up going on seaside holidays in destinations such as Cornwall and Margate, the ‘bar snack’ this dish is based on evokes so much more than just a flavour reaction for me, it’s a personal favourite and a must-eat when visiting certain places.”

Claus credits this rise in the popularity of cockles to “us beginning to catch up with Europe, and other parts of the world, and love the ‘less desirable’ ingredients and lower cost options,” he tells me. “I see it as akin to the ‘nose-to-tail’ ethos regarding meat, which has been hugely influential on kitchens in England. It’s an incredibly positive thing, as a lot of trends with fish and seafood are less to do with quality and are just a reflection of what is sought after by chefs, which means that great produce, like the cockle, is often overlooked. Now people are trying these things and they’re being revived.”

One notable place cooking with cockles is Alex Dilling at Hotel Cafe Royal – the two-Michelin-starred restaurant from the eponymous chef. Housed in a Grade II listed building, with expansive windows that look out over the endless stream of pedestrians, black cabs and double-decker buses making their way down Regents Street, the restaurant is something of an oasis in a cornucopia of chaos. Dilling spent his career working under the likes of Hélène Darroze and Alain Ducasse before opening his own restaurant in 2022 and swiftly jumping immediately to two stars. And yet, even he has cockles on the menu, serving them with potato, razor clams and caviar in an homage to the classic chowder. Dilling says that cockles have “a beautiful sweet brininess and an incredible amount of natural flavour,” and that “chefs and home cooks alike are realising how much potential they have and how much they bring to a dish.”

And Dilling isn’t the only Michelin-starred chef working cockles into their menu. “There is a significant benefit to reviving these ingredients and dishes,” James Lowe, chef and founder of one-Michelin-starred Lyle’s, tells me. “Supporting UK fishermen and farmers helps promote sustainability and ensures these producers receive the financial reward they deserve.”

Cockles at Kelp Canteen

Cockles at Lyle's

At Lyle’s, Lowe serves cockles in a range of ways, with a focus on “always emphasising their pure, saline flavour.” This means cockles may crop up grilled on coals till they’re smokey and then added into a seaweed stock mixed with cockle stock to create a rich broth, or they might be cooked with sliced fennel, onions, carrots and white wine and then left to marinate and served cold with preserved white asparagus and herbs. Other times they may simply be mixed into sauces and served atop fish for an additional hit of flavour. For Lowe, cooking cockles is just as much about utilising an interesting British ingredient as it is helping to change perceptions that this shellfish is ‘not particularly good.’ “It also allows us to showcase the best of what the UK has to offer,” he adds. “Providing our guests with unique and high-quality dishes, by bringing lesser-seen ingredients back into the spotlight and showcasing something different.”

At Osborne’s in Leigh-on-Sea, meanwhile, you can eat your cockles in a range of ways, from classically dressed to ‘cockle popcorn’, which sees cockles lightly breaded and fried and topped with a vinegar mayonnaise and samphire. The result is a moreish little snack that would hold its own against even the best crisps. At the end of our time on the water, I ask Graham what his thoughts are on the sustainability and the future of the cockle industry in the UK. “In 1969, they said the cockle fishery would be finished in ten years,” he tells me. “And yet, here we are fifty years later, still going strong.”

We are lucky enough to have an abundance of exceptional seafood on our shores in the UK, and it’s small businesses and fisheries like Osborne’s that ultimately benefit from our eating local – those that fish thoughtfully, with care for the environment and an attempt to keep business within the immediate community. As chefs begin to use cockles more commonly throughout the country, the hope is that it may finally encourage home cooks and diners to take this homegrown bivalve a little more seriously. And if the way they are utilising them on their menus is any evidence, when you do cook with them, the world is your, ahem, cockle.