About Us

Back in 1964, Geoffrey and Josephine Harris decided to earn a living out of their passion for the old traditional ways of smoking the finest salmon. And so, Springs Smoked Salmon came to life.

But this desire to bring the perfect smoked salmon to an appreciative plate began not really with Geoffrey and Josephine, but with Josephine's father, Richard Pinney who, leaving behind a London scarred and pitted with bomb sites in 1946, set up a new life in the countryside. Pitching up in the small Suffolk fishing village of Orford, he quickly realised that the superb taste of the locally smoked bacon and oysters might be something which he could bring to a wider public.

He then bought a derelict thatched cottage set picturesquely on the banks of the creek, restored it and set up a traditional smokehouse and small oyster farm. Now, sixty years later, his son, William Pinney still operates that very same smokehouse, farms a small amount of oysters there and has established a restaurant - the Butley Orford Oysterage where his acclaimed fresh produce is cooked straight from the creek waters.

So, back to Josephine and her husband Geoffrey who, along with their three sons, Richard, David and Martin having spent a happy holiday at Orford with Richard, learnt how to smoke salmon in the smokers that Richard Pinney had built. These smokers were and indeed remain to this day, traditional smoking kilns which burn only oak logs. Fired with enthusiasm and having learnt the skill, Geoffrey and Josephine, returned home to Edburton in Sussex and set about building their own kilns.

Today, those kilns are still used for curing wild and farmed Scottish Salmon and the Harris family are proud to say that no artificial colourings or preservatives have ever been employed in this curing process.

Nowadays, those two youngest sons, David and Martin Harris have taken over the reins. They own and run the Springs Smoked Salmon business. It is now split into two; the first, the shop stocking around two hundred different types of seafood is situated in the heart of the Sussex Downs, still at Edburton, and the second, the wholesale business, supplies high level restaurants, public houses, hotels and golf clubs throughout the south east of England.

SPRINGS SMOKED SALMON TO YOU:

Martin's wife, Julie runs the Springs Smoked Salmon mail order business having taken it over from Janette Frost ten years ago.

Julie says; "I like to try all of the products so that I can personally advise customers who call or email with queries.

"After Delia Smith mentioned our wild smoked salmon and included us in some Christmas recipes, we were inundated with requests for it!"

Julie has also sent some Springs Smoked Salmon off to gourmet chef, Henry Harris (same name but no relation!) who writes for The Times newspaper.

"We were lucky enough to win that blind tasting with some of our Scottish Wild Salmon", Julie explains "that led to another busy few weeks in the despatch office, especially in the run up to Christmas!"