KLÄDESHOLMEN

Nearly half of all the pickled herring in Sweden comes from Klädesholmen. There have been herring-curing plants and train-oil factories here for centuries. In the late 1800s they began to put spiced herring in tins and small barrels.

The women did the gutting and pickling in the cold and draughty warehouse. The men filled their boats and went off to sell the product, all winter, all the way round the coast of Sweden, right up to the Finnish border.

The businesses began with small family companies and on a very modest scale. One of them started when a young man paid for his board with a pickling recipe. When income was sufficient, or someone came home from the USA with money, they bought simple machines and perhaps a bigger shed. Then the sons started their own companies, expanded and bought more modern machines, more sheds and boats, and so it went on.

There are companies here that are now in their fifth generation. A museum records the history of the industry.