The Guinness Book used to list something called the Faversham Oyster Fishery as having been operating in England at least since it was recorded in the Domesday Book. Then it disappeared from the Guinness Book, and I’ve not looked in one for years.
The Faversham Oyster Fishery website here says:
“The Romans specially prized oysters from ‘Richborough bay’, near Sandwich. The nearby Faversham oyster fishery must have been well-established, and lucrative, when the Manor of Faversham, which included it, was given by King Stephen to Faversham Abbey as its main foundation endowment in 1147.”
