Before the tins
Long before tins, Cornwall was preserving fish for Europe. Huers kept watch from the clifftops, and when a shoal of pilchards came into view they shouted "Hevva!" to send the boats out. The catch was salted, pressed into barrels and shipped mostly to Italy. Exports are recorded as far back as 1555.
Then in 1812, the first ever commercial cannery was opened in Bermondsey, London, and over the years tinned fish became a cupboard staple. Tinned pilchards were cheap, nutritious, and lasts for years, but rarely celebrated.
What makes it British
British tins draw on some of the best fish and seafood in Europe: Cornish sardines and hake, monkfish, rope-grown Lyme Bay mussels, Plymouth anchovies, south-coast mackerel and squid, and trout from the Cotswolds. They also draw on Britain's own preserving traditions of curing, smoking and pickling, and borrow a few Iberian ones, like escabeche, along the way.
How it's changed
The Cornish pilchard fishery almost disappeared in the 1970s. It was revived in the 1990s, rebranded as "Cornish sardines" in 1997 (they're the same fish), and awarded MSC sustainability certification in 2010. Since then, British producers have realised that fish good enough for Spanish and Portuguese tins is being landed in British harbours.
How to eat British tinned fish
- Cornish sardines on sourdough with salted butter and a sharp pickle
- Hake in lemon flaked through pasta or a salad, with the oil as the dressing
- Mussels or mackerel in escabeche straight from the tin, with a cold English cider or English sparkling wine
- Monkfish with Aleppo pepper over rice, or folded into a warm flatbread
- Squid in ink stirred through rice for a quick black risotto
- Sardine pâté on toast for a quick lunch or with crackers for an easy starter
The producers
Hevva! cans on a farm in Bude, on the north Cornish coast. The small team buys fish from Newlyn, then cooks, smokes and tins it on site. It only uses species with a good rating in the Marine Conservation Society's Good Fish Guide. We stock its dry-cured Cornish sardines, hake with lemon, Cornish mussels, monkfish with Aleppo pepper and Cotswold trout with dill.
Rockfish is the tinned range from Brixham chef and restaurateur Mitch Tonks, launched in 2021. The fish is landed on the south coast and frozen on the quayside, then hand-packed by an artisan cannery in Spain. Our range covers Plymouth anchovies, Lyme Bay mussels and mackerel in escabeche, squid in ink and a sardine pâté. It's British catch with Spanish craft.
Buying notes
Shelf stable, tinned fish is a great way to enjoy seasonal British catch all year round. A mix of Hevva! and Rockfish makes a lovely gift that surprises people who assume the best tinned fish comes from abroad.
Why we're excited
This is the part of our range we're proudest of. For a long time, British tins stood for thrift, not flavour. Now there are small producers making tins that are unmistakably their own: garam-masala monkfish in lime and coconut oil, Cornish hake with lemon, dill-cured Cotswold trout, Lyme Bay mussels in escabeche. They start from great British fish, including species like hake that we rarely think of tinning, and cook it with real ambition. We think they can hold their own against the best from Spain and Portugal.
FAQs
Are pilchards and sardines the same fish?
Yes. Both are Sardina pilchardus; "pilchard" traditionally means a larger, older fish.
Is British tinned fish canned in the UK?
Some is. Hevva! cans on its farm in Cornwall. Rockfish uses British-landed fish canned by specialists in Spain.
Is it sustainable?
Cornish sardines are MSC certified and some of the most sustainable sardines available, and both producers choose species and fishing methods with sustainability in mind.
Is hake a good alternative to cod?
Yes. Hake is plentiful in Cornish waters, has a similar sweet, meaty flake, and makes a more sustainable choice than cod.
Explore more: Portuguese tinned fish · Spanish tinned fish · All sardines