Waveney Valley
Supplier of our traditional smoked Kippers and Mackerel fillets.
Only the best will do for our loyal customers, so here at Regal we bring together the finest fresh and frozen seafood from all over the world.
From PGI status Grimsby Smoked Haddock to East Coast of England Lobsters and Scottish Smoked Salmon from John Ross Junior, supplier to Her Majesty The Queen. Many of our ready prepared products are produced locally to our and using fresh fish taken from our stocks each day.
Those of you that have tried our traditionally smoked Kippers and Mackerel, will agree that Waveney Valley, our artisan producer based in Lowestoft, really do produce the finest products listed on our menu. If you are yet to try them, we particularly recommend the smoked Mackerel, which are pin boned leaving you to enjoy with minimal preparation.
Waveney Valley Smokehouse is the brainchild of Gerry & Glynis Skews who retired to the Suffolk coast 5 years ago in search of an easier life. Gerry had previously founded and run a medical imaging software business in Cambridge and Glynis, a former nurse, had worked for the NHS for many years in child health, which she always claimed was great training for living with Gerry. They came across a closed up smokehouse while out for a walk. The smokehouse was over 150 years old and was a few yards from Britain’s most Easterly place at Ness Point where the River Waveney enters the sea. Lowestoft has a great maritime heritage being connected with the fishing industry for many years. Red Herrings are mentioned in Thomas Nashe’s Lenten of 1599 and it’s a good bet that there was fishing and smoking long before that particular Elizabethan picked up his quill.
Gerry & Glynis thought it would be a great idea to “smoke a few kippers” for friends and family but just to subsidise the enterprise they thought they would sell a few to local fish traders, then to a few wholesalers then they hooked up with us here at Regal and things really started taking off. Now the smokehouse produces a wide range of smoked foods including many types of Herring, Mackerel, Salmon and all of the usual products you would expect from a smokehouse. Output runs to a couple of tons a week and business has grown such that they have acquired and converted the building next door to have the packing and shipping facilities necessary to support the business.
According to Gerry “the real challenge for a traditional business like ours is striving for consistency but the sooner you realise tradition and consistency are mutually incompatible your mind is in a better place. You see, when the wind blows from the North the smoke in the kilns does not vent as intended, and when there’s a sea fog the fish cure more slowly, and when the sun is beating down in the heat of the summer the smoking is different yet again, and when the fish are landed in October, they have a different oil content”. You get the idea!
So we have taken the view that a Kipper smoked in winter is different to the kipper smoked in the summer, and that’s the truth of it, difficult to say which is better, we use the same seasoned English Oak in the same kilns and the same cutting & curing techniques but the products are different. The French would call that a victory for food and come up with a classic Frenchism like “Vive la Difference” we call it traditional, and move on with our “easier life” that starts before dawn every day.
