Ella Hookey (‘Mrs Tom’) wrote in the WI Scrapbook in 1958:

Fishing was another industry in which about eight men were occupied in Brook. My father (Frank Cooke) fished in summer and in winter occupied himself in making lobster and prawn pots, generally admitted to be the finest obtainable. He had orders for these from different parts of the country some even going to Ireland.

When I was about twelve years old an exhibition of handicraft was held in Newport - and my father had an award of merit for his pots. He rented withy beds and cut them in January each year, stacking them in large sheds. These were trimmed and sharpened and then soaked before they were used. Then they were woven into the baskets and this was a great art which has been handed down to the present day for we still have Mr Woodford on the Green who makes these baskets.