Pinney's ofOrford

Richard Pinney came to Orford just after the war, restored the derelict oyster beds on Butley Creek, and built smokehouses that cure with whole oak logs and nothing else but salt — structures still in daily use, smoking the catch of the family's own two boats. The Butley Orford Oysterage, the plain-tabled restaurant he opened on Market Hill in the mid-sixties to prove the point, still serves it; Bill and Janet Pinney lead the second generation with Jodie and George making a third, and the shop in the old warehouse on Quay Street sells the smoke to take home, disclosed as the operation's other door. Oysters, oak and one family's stubbornness: the entire recipe, unchanged.