DECOYS AROUND FRISKNEY AND WAINFLEET
The decoys of this area provided great interest yet by the time Oldfield published his History of Wainfleet in 1829 drainage of the fens, whilst benefitting agriculture, was causing loss of more traditional incomes whether it be from growing cranberries or by the loss of income from the many decoys with only Friskney and Wainfleet remaining at this time:
“Great as are the advantages arising from inclosure and drainage, they have in some measure been counterbalanced, as it respects this parish, by the loss sustained by the Decoys, and almost total failure of the Cranberry Harvest. Friskney was at one time noted for the number and magnitude of its Decoys and for the immense quantity of wildfowl caught in them. London was at that period principally supplied with Ducks, Wigeon and Teal from the Decoys in the neighbourhood. In one season a few winters prior to the enclosure of the Fens, ten Decoys, five of which were in this parish, furnished the astonishing number of 31,200 for the markets of the Metropolis. Since the enclosure the number caught, has been comparatively small. Only three Decoys remain, two in Friskney and one in Wainfleet Saint Mary’s, and the Decoymen consider 5000 birds a good season.”
The cranberry harvest was also wiped out by drainage with bumper crops yielding 4000 pecks of cranberries and the average crop in the area being 2000 pecks. The economic loss due to drainage is clear when you realise people were paid five shillings per peck to pick them and the cranberries were then being sold for between thirty to fifty shillings per peck depending upon the market that year.
Prior to drainage huge flocks of wild ducks had been seen in the Wainfleet area to such a great extent that they were seen passing North to North East to enter the Fen in a continuous stream for eight hours together. One can only imagine such a spectacle.
The map above from 1807 shows the Wainfleet area and lists the decoys of that time. You have to note that two names stand out and they are the two family names that dominated the construction and management of decoys from the eighteenth century right through to the twentieth century, the Skeltons and the Williams.
The Skelton family came from Friskney and the family accounted for many of the constructed and remodelled decoys throughout Britain. “Old George Skelton” left Friskney to design a decoy for Mr Huntington in Somerton in 1807 and worked the Winterton Decoy in Norfolk until he died in 1840 aged 80. George’s skills were passed on to his four sons George, William, Richard and Henry.
William Skelton constructed several decoys throughout Britain and Ireland ending his life working a decoy for Lord Craven at Combe Abbey, Warwickshire aged 78 in 1867. Richard Skelton constructed many decoys including the one at Holme Fen, near the A1 at Peterborough, in 1815. Richard worked as a decoy man for the Gurney family at Hempstead and ended his days working at a Decoy in Methwold in 1849 aged 53.
Richard Skelton passed his skills on to his son, also Richard, who worked for Mr R. Page at Marsh House Decoy in Essex.
Old George Skelton’s eldest son inherited his father’s title “Old George” and worked with his brothers William and Richard to erect Methwold Decoy. In 1818 he set up a decoy at Dersingham where he worked until his death on 14th February 1857 aged 67. He is pictured in the frontispiece of Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey’s book of Duck Decoys. Sadly he died of cancer of the oesophagus possibly brought on by alcoholism. His death bed is described such:
“The house Skelton lived in stood alone in the marshes, no great distance from the seashore, and was at that time at least two miles away from any other dwelling. It consisted of a long, low and gloomy room. On asking for him his wife pointed to a corner of the room. On looking there I could see nothing but ducks and wildfowl hanging on strings. On repeating the question where Skelton was some of the strings of the wildfowl were taken down, and I found him lying on a four poster bed. The strings of wildfowl were stretched from one post to another so as to form regular curtains that shut him in completely from view.”
William Skelton, brother to Richard, Henry and George, had a son Thomas Gilbert Skelton who worked decoys with his father and can be regarded as the last of the line that earned his living on decoys. Thomas Gilbert Skelton died in Wells workhouse, Norfolk in January 1918 aged 85.
The Williams family were equally significant in developing and preserving the art of the decoy. The earliest reference is an application by a Williams for the Earl of Lincoln to the Commissioners requesting permission to pierce the bank of the River Welland to supply water to his existing decoy pond at Newborough in 1670.
The next significant Williams I have found is Andrew Williams who had a famous epitaph at Ashton Hall, Shropshire:
ANDREW WILLIAMS
Born A.D. 1692. Died April 18, 1776
Aged 84 years.
Of which he lived under the Aston Family as a Decoyman for 60 years.
Here les the Decoyman who lived like an otter,
Dividing his time betwixt land and water;
His hide he oft soaked in the waters of Perry,
Whilst Aston old beer his spirits kept cherry.
Amphibious his life, Death was puzzled to say
How to dust to reduce such well-moistened clay;
So Death turned Decoyman and ‘coyed him to land,
Where he fixed his abode till quite dry to the hand,
He then found him fitting for crumbling to dust,
And here he lies mouldering as you and I must.
Andrew Williams appears to have had three sons with John Williams being decoyman at Newborough until his death in 1825. Another son, Tom Williams, had the decoy at Friskney who worked alongside his own sons John and Tom.
Like the Skeltons, various members of the extended Williams family can be found constructing and running decoys throughout the country. When Mr J Whitaker F.Z.S. visited Newborough Decoy in 1917 and 1919 he was the guest of Herbert Williams, Annie Williams’s father. Annie married her distant cousin who would become the last decoyman of the site Billy Williams (they shared the same great,great grandfather, john Williams the son of Andrew Williams of Aston Hall).
In 1939 the freehold of Borough Fen Decoy changed hands due to the death of the owner and as tenant Billy and Annie Williams position was precarious. Resulting in the following local press article:
“Bill and Spot May Lose Their Job
By an open brick hearth in a thatched farmhouse in these lonely Fens, billy Williams, a 57 year old duck decoyer, sits talking to me and wondering whether a centuries old tradition is to be broken.
Nearly 300 years ago a man named Williams dug a two-acre lake in the shape of an eight-pointed star in the middle of a 20 acre wood near here. Over each arm of the lake, technically called a pipe, he stretched a hooped tunnel of netting. Along the shore he built screens of reeds.
He set tame ducks on the lake to decoy the wild flights at daybreak from the marshes. And he spent the rest of his life trapping birds. Ever since, without a break, descendants of that original Williams have been fowlers by the eight-pointed lake that he dug.
Billy has no sons, but there are two nephews, one of whom he would like to train to take over the lake when he is dead – if the lake remains.
For the last farmer to own it died just after Christmas and farm, lake and all are to be put to public auction. If the new farmer does not happen to be interested in the wildfowl lake …… but Billy can scarcely bear to think of that.
For there are few wildfowl decoys left in England. Of those that remain this is the largest. Billy thinks fowling is a job to which you must be born. When he had explained to me how it is done I agreed with him.
When the wind is right and the clouds are right Billy walks silently down to the lake in the wood. He wears an inconspicuous brown suit and hat, and carries a piece of smouldering peat so that not even the scent of man shall drift across the lake.
Behind him trots a black and white mongrel terrier named Spot which knows more about wild fowl than any fowler living. They reach the lake and Billy peers cautiously over at the wild duck resting on the quiet water. He points silently to one of the reed screens and Spot leaps over it. Angrily the fowl make at him as he leaps back. They are trapped in the netting pipe.”
Billy gained a reprieve as he was given a lease to the decoy.
Billy continued to work the decoy reverting to capturing live birds for ringing in later years. Billy died in 1958 the last of the Williams line to be a decoy man. His rather wonderful gravestone is in Peakirk graveyard aptly decorated with carvings of wildfowl.
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