Waters off Middlesex offer some of the most fertile beds for oysters

by Larry Chowning –

With the Urbanna Oyster Festival coming this weekend it is a reminder of the significance that the Rappahannock River oyster fishery has had and is having on Middlesex County.

Ancient Rappahannock River public oyster beds range from one end of Middlesex County to another — from Stingray Point in Deltaville to Butylo near Laneview. Some of the most fertile grounds on the Chesapeake Bay for growing “clean culled” oysters can be found in the river just off the shore of Middlesex. A “clean culled oyster” is three inches or greater in shell length and market size.

For generations, oystermen have come from near and far to Middlesex to oyster. Many came and stayed and many family names here in the county today are associated with the oyster. They came here to live to be closer to the oyster beds — the economic engine of the time.

Surnames of locals living here today such as Bonneville, Rowe, Smith, Shores, Crockett, Dize and others are all tied to an ancestral migration to Middlesex by their relatives who came here to harvest oysters…