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Built structures · Place · Smokehouses and smoke rooms
A surviving nineteenth-century stone smokehouse at Craster, Northumberland. Its tall, narrow rooms, hanging racks and roof vents belong to a commercial herring-curing works; the evidence describes this listed building, not a universal smoke
Craster’s smokehouse is a place-specific building, not a template for every fish smoker. Historic England dates the listed structure to 1853 and describes it as a mid-nineteenth-century stone building that may partly have been converted from an earlier structure. Its tall, narrow, windowless exterior, pantile roof and roof-top smoke vents make the building’s purpose legible from outside. Inside, smoke-blackened chambers and wooden racks preserve evidence of the work carried on there.
The building formed part of a commercial herring-curing yard in a village where several such yards once operated. Historic England situates Craster within the northeast coast’s herring trade: the fish was sold fresh, pickled, or smoked for markets elsewhere. The Robson family bought the top yard in 1906, and the listed entry records traditional kipper production continuing at the site. The designation protects this named building and its historic interest; it does not establish Craster as the origin of smoking rooms.
The layout separates the smoking work into several rooms rather than one undivided chamber. Historic England notes a fuel store as well as multiple smoke rooms, with roof vents carrying smoke out above the narrow building. The surviving blackened surfaces and wooden racks are direct traces of repeated use. The roof, vents and smoke-room doors have been renewed, so the present fabric includes maintenance as well as older material.
Those details explain how the building organised a commercial process: fish could hang from racks in a smoke room while fuel burned below, and smoke escaped through vents. The source does not give room dimensions, airflow measurements, rack capacity or a construction plan. Nor does the listed description specify how every room was used in every period. Those absences matter; the building can be described accurately without turning its heritage record into a generic design.
The listing describes herring hung on tenter hooks in the smoke rooms for a 16-hour smoke. Fires on the floor used whitewood shavings and oak sawdust. These are details tied to Craster’s surviving works and its continuing kipper production, not fixed rules for all kippers. A Torry Research Station advisory note places smoking among a longer sequence of kippering operations that includes washing, splitting, brining, draining, hanging, cooling and packing; it provides general process context rather than architectural evidence for this building.
Historic England’s account gives a useful view of the relationship between structure and work: the rooms hold the hanging fish, the floor-level fires supply smoke, and roof vents provide an outlet. It does not provide a modern temperature profile, safety validation, or a complete technical specification. The smokehouse is best understood as a working heritage structure whose documented form and use are unusually clear, while exact dimensions and engineering details remain unrecorded.
Historic England dates the listed building to 1853, while describing it as mid-nineteenth century and possibly partly converted from an existing building. It recounts the wider northeast-coast herring trade and says the Robson family bought the top yard in 1906. Historic England describes traditional kipper production continuing at the site.
A build is made where it stands: moving it means building it again.
The listing describes historic form and use but gives no structural design, fire clearances, smoke controls or current operating specification.
Hazard sourceDo not treat this heritage record as construction, fire-safety or fish-curing instructions.
Geograph's subject point for the smokehouse at NU25831990, stated 10 m precision; matches the building identified by Historic England at NU2583219894. Not a surveyed position inside a smoke chamber.
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Historic EnglandHistory · Design · Materials · Geography · Process
Smokehouse, Craster, Craster – 1486186The listing dates the smokehouse to 1853, describes it as mid-nineteenth century and possibly partly converted from an existing building, and assigns Grade II status.
The exterior is described as tall, narrow, windowless, stone-built, with pantiles and roof-top smoke vents; the interior retains smoke-blackened chambers and wooden racks.
The building contains several separate smoke rooms and a fuel store; roof, vents and doors have been renewed.
Historic England describes herring hung on tenter hooks and smoked for 16 hours over fires of whitewood shavings and oak sawdust; it records Robson family purchase in 1906 and continued traditional kipper production.
Cited in: A surviving building in a herring-curing village; Rooms, racks and smoke vents; Kippers and the recorded smoking process
Torry Research Station, Ministry of Technology; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsProcess
Kippers (Torry Advisory Note No. 48)The note describes kippering operations including washing, splitting, brining, draining, tentering, smoking, cooling and packing; it supplies general kipper context rather than construction details for Craster.
Cited in: Kippers and the recorded smoking process
Geograph Britain and IrelandGeography
L Robson & Sons Ltd, Traditional Fish SmokersSite reference latitude 55.47225, longitude -1.59296. Geograph's subject point for the smokehouse at NU25831990, stated 10 m precision; matches the building identified by Historic England at NU2583219894. Not a surveyed position inside a smoke chamber.