Sturgeon
Sturgeon are almost never seen in UK waters either in the sea or inland. However, occasional non-native sturgeon species get introduced to our waterways the Environment Agency seeks their removal. There has been an introduction of sturgeon into French waters since 2017 so the chances of seeing one in UK waters has been raised slightly higher than it used to be. Sturgeon are protected in law, and quite rightly so that this ancient species be given a chance to thrive.
In a way sturgeon do enjoy a long held protection for like whales under ancient law established in the thirteenth century by Edward II, they are royal fish. This means that they effectively belong to the monarch. Boston was in a good position because Elizabeth I had given the Corporation rights over such fish caught in its waters. The early seventeenth century saw records of sturgeon being presented by Boston to various people of note:
“In 1615 a keg of sturgeon and other fish were sent to the Earl of Exeter. In 1622 sturgeon was presented to the Earl of Lindsey and other persons. In 1652 sturgeon and other fish to Sir Henry Vane; and in 1664 a keg of sturgeon to the Earl of Lindsey.”[i]
In 1662 a fisherman of Frampton was paid 20s. “for his pains in taking a sturgeon, and bringing the same to Boston.”
Looking at old press records it appears that reported incidents of capturing large sturgeon in the estuaries of the East coast became rarer and almost unheard of from the late nineteenth century.
In 1869 a sturgeon was caught at Cowbit:
“On Saturday 22nd of May, the inhabitants of the quiet village of Cowbit were somewhat alarmed in consequence of a cartilaginous visitor having taken up his abode near to the residence of the Revd. J.T. Dove. When first seen in the Soke Dyke on the side of the slope, many attacked him with forks and even fired shots at him, but of no avail; at last Mr Henry Pickering and a few others went out in a boat and captured the huge creature in a net, and brought him to land amidst the plaudits of the people who had assembled to inspect what turned out to be a sturgeon, commonly called the ‘Royal Fish’. His length was 8ft. 9in. and weight 196lbs. or 14 stones. He was brought to Spalding and exhibited, and a very handsome sum realized by the exhibitor.”[ii]
Conger Eel
The conger eel was caught in the Witham up to the 19th century with larger fish becoming easier to catch as they turned languid leaving salt water and hitting fresh water. They have always been more common on the West coast of Britain as they spawn in the Atlantic ocean. The appearance of this fish on the East coast is now extremely rare.
Eels
Perhaps one fish that is synonymous with the Fens is the eel. Indeed Ely is thought by some to have derived its name from the fish. This is disputed by some, but considering the history of the area it makes sense to me. The Northumbrian scholar Bede certainly referred to the area as “Elge” which is thought to be an old Northumbrian word meaning “district of eels”.
Certainly eels are a great source of income and wealth in Medieval times. They were even used as currency to pay taxes, levies and rents with both the Witham and the Welland celebrated as a source of valuable fish. The abbeys and priories at Ramsey, Crowland, Spalding, Bardney and Kirkstead all benefitted from income derived from eels along with other fish. Each religious house could account for tens of thousands of eels in a year. Eels were one of the most popular fish to eat in Medieval England and were possibly consumed more than any other freshwater or marine fish combined. This is hard to imagine today as consumption is so low in this country that they are nearly all exported to Holland.
The importance of the eel as currency is illustrated in the Domesday Book that lists hundreds of examples of eel rents with eels being grouped into bundles of 25 into a denomination known as a stick or a group of ten known as a bind. This may sound bizarre today, but eels could be easily preserved using salt, smoking or drying them. As a currency they were certainly divisible, portable and had an element of durability once preserved. Ely monks are reported to have paid 4000 eels a year to quarry stone at Barnack near Stamford to build their monastery.
By 1666 eels had become scarce in London when Samuel Pepys “bought two eels on the Thames for which I paid 6s.” To put this into context six schillings in 1666 is equivalent to about £50 in 2022.
Eels were deemed to have medicinal benefits. For example, warts were treated by rubbing them each with eels blood. A garter worn around the leg made of eel skin would prevent swimmers getting cramp. The eel was even said to be able to cure alcoholism: “If you would make some notorious drunkard and common swill-bowl, to loathe and abhor his beastly vice, and for ever after, to hate the drinking of wine; put an eel alive into some wide-mouthed pot with a cover having in it such a quantity of wine, as may suffice of itself to suffocate and strangle the eel to death. Which done, take out the dead eel, and let the party whom you would have reclaimed from his bibacity, not knowing hereof, drink of that wine only as much as he listeth.”
I think drinking wine that had had an eel die in it might put me off drinking too!
From the eighteenth century eels were a good seasonal income for the fenman and even up to the 1930’s accounts of £100 a day being made from eels was not unusual in the season whether on Cowbit, Whittlesea or Welney washes. The season being described by the fenman Ernie James as, “When the worms come up the eels are biting in the rivers.”
Several methods were used to capture eels on the Fens.
The eel hive is a woven basket normally out of willow. This forms a tube of willow that has a barbed entrance that can only be entered one way and is shuttered off by a woven cage or net at the other end. This is usually, but not always, baited with anything from fish to road kill rabbit and placed in a running water course, often in the shade of overhanging willow. Eels swim along and enter the hive, often tail first, and are trapped by the design of its mouth, typically a small purse net is at the end allowing water to flow through but retaining the eel. The hive can be picked up and the captured eels collected with ease. I last saw willow hives being used in the River Glen at Surfleet Reservoir in 1989 where three hives had been set.
Eel hives could occasionally be made of hazel or even wire. However, these were not deemed as successful because one of the advantages of willow is that eels like to suck its bark making the hives themselves attractive even without bait.
An eel glave, sometimes called an eel gleave or eel spear was a serrated fork on a long pole. This could be used on a punt to propel the punt forward in a drain whilst at the same time spearing eels from the mud below to be gathered in a bucket on the punt. It could also be used on the side of a drain or above a sluice gate or siphon. When pasture was flooded on the washes to a shallow depth it was also used to spear eels that may be crossing from one water course to another. A similar device was used for pike fishing, but it had more points and not the serrations and broad spears designed to catch more than one eel at a time.
Totting is a mode of taking eels with a large bunch of worms threaded on worsted, and attached to a conical lead sinker weighing from one to two pounds. In this way quantities of eels were sometimes taken, especially in tidal rivers or when in flood. The fenman would have his boat made fast mid-stream. From this he dropped his tot by means of a line at the end of a short rod. When a bite was felt the rod was raised quickly but steadily. The eels dropped into the end of the boat, and the tot was lowered again to the bottom of the water course.
Eel nets: - I have seen these in two forms. The most common I have seen has been the purse net that is almost identical in design to the net used to catch ducks at the end of a decoy pipe, albeit with a smaller mesh. The other form of net is a lamb net that I have seen used on marsh creeks. This is a pole with a hoop on it that contains a net with tiny purses sewn into it. You simply either stand in the channel or walk along it and allow eels and other fish to swim into it. I have been told that sometimes lamb nets would be used at night with small fires lit along the drain side to entice eels into the net.
The 21st century has seen greater measures to protect the eel in all stages of its life cycle from elvers to adults along the waterways of Eastern England. This has seen greater care in irrigation and water drainage systems to ensure eels and elvers can swim without harm or interference.
The eel has fallen out of favour with the British pallet. It is still possible to buy smoked eels and even jellied eels locally these fish tend to be an acquired taste that tends to be confined to fashionable food fairs and markets.
The stickleback
When I was young it was easy to spot sticklebacks in the drains around Spalding. But it was with great surprise that I discovered that sticklebacks used to be available in such great quantities that they were fished for profit in the eighteenth century as a source of oil. They were boiled up in their thousands to extract their oil and the remaining fish waste was sold to farmers as manure. There are records of one man taking 100 bushels of sticklebacks in a day in the East and West Wildmore Fens near Boston. A bushel is 8 gallons. The trade became a significant earner for the duty charged by the Corporation of Boston for the fishing of sticklebacks grew considerably from 1710 onwards. In 1710 the Corporation summonsed fishers of sticklebacks to appear for fishing without a license and for corrupting the water with oil and refuse from the sticklebacks.
It was not just the Boston area. In 1710 there are records in Spalding of a man being employed by a farmer being paid the considerable wage of 4s. a day selling sticklebacks as manure at the rate of a halfpenny a bushel.
Whales
Edward II made whales “royal fish” making any whale caught or washed ashore crown property to this day. Whales were not considered different from porpoise or dolphins, so they all became classified as royal fish. The 1971 Wild Creatures and Forest Laws Bill retained royal prerogative over these animals with the benefit that it enabled the Natural History Museum to study and record stranded animals.
Edward II’s law meant that the hunting of whales from Britain required consent of the crown and possibly stunted the whole whale hunting industry which was dominated in Europe by the Dutch in the sixteenth century and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the Norwegians. Whilst there were some commercial fishing of whales on the East coast I have found no evidence of whaling from either Boston or Kings Lynn with the nearest whaling port being Great Yarmouth.
Whilst little of a whale went to waste the value of oil extracted from whale blubber was the driver of their slaughter especially as the industrial revolution required more oil. The highest value product that might be extracted from a whale is ambergris which was only found in less than 5% of sperm whale carcasses and can even be found disgorged onto beaches throughout the world if you are lucky enough to find it as it is a highly valued material used in perfumes. Whalebones had a variety of uses, for ornate archways, artistic scrimshaw carvings and perhaps most famously in lady’s corsets. Any waste products were used as manure. As for whale meat, it never caught on, despite attempts to promote it in post-war Britain. My grandfather recalled whale meat being sold in Newcastle in World War 2 with people queueing around the block as it was the only meat available and it did not require the use of ration stamps.
Rights to “royal fish” and shipwrecks and other royal assets were from time to time bequeathed by various monarchs to the various religious houses around the Wash, or upon the towns and ports such as Boston and Kings Lynn. In Lincolnshire “drift whales” , as stranded whales were described, were not uncommon over the years. The enforcement of the King’s rights over whales could be quite problematic. In the thirteenth century whale flesh fetched 2d. and the blubber boiled down for whale oil was also of great worth. In 1317 a large whale came ashore on the sands of Holbeach and country people took a lot away with the carcass being pursued by the King’s Commissioners as far as Crane End in Freiston parish near Boston.[iii]
An inquiry by the King’s writ was held by the Sheriff of Lincolnshire and John de Yordsburgh concerning whales cast on shore in 1317; they first met at Wainfleet on the Tuesday before St. Bottolph – 17th June – and found that a small whale had on Friday before mid-Lent Sunday came ashore between the Wapentakes of Candleshoe and Skirbeck, that sailors of Norfolk had taken a greater part and loaded their boats therewith while at sea, and that after it came ashore Richard de Morlee and many others had taken away parts.
Elizabeth I had granted Boston rights over wrecks and whales, but the value of even a stranded whale was so great that it warranted dispute over ownership as is illustrated in 1605 when the Corporation of Boston successfully disputed the right of the Crown over a whale stranded on the “Long Washes” just off the coast of Boston. The Corporation met Sir Robert Wingfied and the Lord Admiral representing the Crown three times in Spalding and six journeys were made to London to consult with Lord Burleigh before the Corporation of Boston won possession of the whale. The whale produced six tons of oil which was sold in London for 106£ 5s. The bones sold for 44s.
In 1665 a large whale “of the species called the Grampus” was taken off Gedney parish and was subject to a legal dispute between the town of Boston and Kings Lynn with the Corporation of Boston winning possession.
“In 1778, a whale, fifty-two feet in length, having come aground by the fall of the tide, was caught near Clayhole, by the crew of the Boston revenue cutter, assisted by some pilots; a second was taken on January 1794, and a third was caught opposite Freiston shore in 1798.
Another was found near the Bar Sand, in the Deeps, in June 1847, the skeleton of which was 53feet 6 inches long, and the tail 13 feet 4 inches broad, from tip to tip. A younger and much smaller one was found near the same place in 1850.”
“A narwhal, or sea unicorn, was found upon the sands at Freiston shore in February 1800. The length of this fish was 18 feet, that of its horn 7 ½ feet.”
As we enter the twentieth century the incidents of stranded whales in the Wash become less, but sadly this may be an indication of falling populations. Those that were stranded often showed signs of injury by man:
“A whale on the outer Wash at Dawsmere near Long Sutton. It is a bottle-nosed grampus variety measuring 25ft. 6in. long. It had a great gash in its body.” 11.10.1913
“A whale washed ashore near Mr. W.K.Wright’s farm at Dawsmere Marsh believed to have been killed by a machine gun. It was 12 feet long with a girth of 8 feet.” 2.5.1936
Pike
I remember the first time I saw a pike I would be about 5 years old and asked my parents what the fish was mounted in a glass case in the bar of a pub. It was a fearsome beast with a mouth of sharp teeth. The pub was The Three Pickerels at Mepal near the Ouse Washes. A “pickerel” is the name given to a young pike.
Pike are a vivacious hunter that thrives in the drains and waterways of the fens. One evening when I was about 13 me and my father were walking along the Vernatts drain at Surfleet Reservoir near Spalding when ahead of us we saw a mallard duck vanish in a splash never to reappear. We could only guess that it had been taken by a pike. Now, according to books, pike hunt alone, however, many years ago, when the River Welland had its level dropped for maintenance work in the centre of Spalding I saw three pike kill and rip apart a mallard duck. My mother told me tails of how farm workers down the fen would spear a pike with a pitch fork and hook it out the drain. When they lived down Twenty Drove her brother caught a pike and took it home still alive. When her mother went to pick it up it bit her arm only letting go when she chopped its head off with an axe. Whilst pike can make good eating I am assured they are full of bones. In my childhood I do recall seeing pike steaks for sale at Hayes fishmongers in Spalding and in the Lincoln covered market. In recent times I have seen smoked pike steaks for sale in a food fair. Mostly this fish is now confined to the private dinner table of the enthusiast or fancy restaurants.
But, if we go back in time pike were highly regarded and the fen pike were amongst the best tasting it was thought on account of all the eels they fed upon. Camdens Brittania of 1695 quotes the then well-known proverb, “Witham pike, none the like.” referring to their good eating.
“He is the Wolfe of the water, but is indeed a monster of Nature; for the Wolfe spares his kinde, but he will devour their own.” (1625)
“Tho’ the rich Pike, to entertain your guest smokes on the board and decks a royal feast.”
Waniere 1750 – indicating the value this fish was regarded.
The fenman had several methods of catching pike with some of them not dissimilar to catching eels. Pike could be speared with a pike spear. This may be done as the fish cross land in shallow waters of a flooded wash. I have seen a pike successfully cross from one drain to another in about two inches depth of water. Provided their gills are wet, like eels, they can cross short areas of land. Pike were more likely to be speared from a punt or the side of a drain or dyke.
Nets and bated hooks were used:
“Lay a flue net of fine twine single walled of say 7 feet deep by 35 yards long and then beat the fish into the net.
Again, moor the punt in the middle of the lake on a cord as for sea fishing that is a stout cord with a heavy lead at the bottom ; tie two or three gimp snap hooks with swivels (the last three yards of line being gimp) at equal distances on the line from the bottom, viz. 1 foot, 2 feet, and 3 feet, the lead being at the bottom of the lake. Bait the hooks with live gudgeons or large minnows.”
If the later did not catch a pike it may catch eel. It is certainly a similar method to the “trimmers” used by fenmen Josh Scott and Ernie James at Welney. That is, a short length of round wood with a line attached, weighted and hooked with a large hook. The line is wrapped around the stick leaving about three feet loose. If an eel or pike takes the bait the fenman looks for his trimmers to spy what has been taken. Sometimes instead of a stick a corked bottle would be used.
This use of trimmers is recorded in Whittlesea Mere in 1805:
“The boatmen, early in the morning, baited the hook at the end of a long line, so fastened to the stake as to unwind at the slightest pull. The trimmers were examined in the course of the day by the visitors, who were punted along in the flat-bottomed boat. It was worthwhile to send to the Ouse for gudgeons as bait when a good days sport was required. Pike of 5lb to 12lb weight, eels 2lb. to 3lb.to 4lb. were frequently caught.” [iv]
It is worth noting that it is in this era that we see fishing, and shooting for that matter, being partaken for sport alongside that for income and sustenance of the fenman.
Nowadays most of the pike fishermen I encounter on local rivers around the fens are east European. Talking to them they take very few home to eat depending upon size and even then the quantity of bones make it unpopular.
Turbot
This fish is today regarded as a sea fish. But, it is clear that the fenmen of old caught this fish in the brackish creeks and waterways nearer the coast of the Wash. These were caught by trawling a net along the drain pulled by a horse, or a man each side, and in this way turbot were fished from the bottom of the channels where they lay in the silt.
Burbot
Finally I mention one fish which was last recorded as being caught at Denver sluice on the Ouse Washes in 1969. The burbot is a freshwater cod that is a remnant of the last ice age when Europe and Britain were joined and is an ancient fish of note. It was called the “eelpout” and would certainly have featured in the diets of the local priories from Bardney through to Spalding and Crowland. Indeed, it should be noted that the village of Whaplode near Holbeach derives its name from the eelpout with the old English “cwappa-lad” meaning “eelpout water course” or “ellpout stream” with “cwappa” being eelpout and “lad” or “lode” refereeing to a small water course or drain.
Indeed the phrase “whapper-jawed” meaning having a projected lower jaw is thought to have a sixteenth century derivation from when this fish with its cod-like barbel on its chin was more common-place. The last accounts of eelpout being sold that I have found are in the 19th century.
Fishermen and Fenmen
The old fishermen and fowlers of the Wash and the Fens were part of an economy that exploited the cycles of nature. Whether fish or fowl, each season had its cycle and different “crops” to yield. This changed as towns and cities grew and the need and the opportunity for the fruits of the sea and fen to feed these populations grew with it. As we have seen the interruption of imports and exports also affected supply and price as various wars and blockades from Europe ensued.
It is, in my opinion, a falsehood to say that these men and their activities were more environmentally responsible than today and too many view these great men with rose coloured glasses of nostalgia and an idyll that did not exist. The simple fact is that they exploited their environment just as much as man does today. However, they were in touch with their environment more as they lived and died in their work. I view it as wrong to view them as a rural or environmental idyll. They had the capacity to over-exploit resources to the point of local extinction. Yet they were often aware of their actions and where mutual co-operation or regulation could be achieved they sought to conserve species and habitats.
They used what was available and adapted to their environment and activity, sometimes reluctantly, and other times willingly, or with pragmatism. Hence we see great fenmen like Ernie James and Josh Scott at Welney and Billy Williams at Newborough switching to conservation activities as the twentieth century progressed; or John Lineham becoming a fisheries bailiff using his knowledge to police the preservation of fish stocks. These fishermen and fenmen came from an era where knowledge and expertise was not the monopoly of the educated and local knowledge was respected, and people could not appoint themselves as experts on the internet with little real world experience.
It is perhaps in the best tradition of the pragmatic fenmen that we see today’s farmers adapting how they use the land. This can perhaps best be illustrated at Decoy Farm at Postland which serves the towns by providing power from anaerobic digesters; composts rubbish from Peterborough and elsewhere; and in 2022 plans are being made for a potential saltwater prawn farm to be developed at this site exploiting the by-products of the activities on this site to enable this process. In such a way we see new cycles of food production being created. I can’t help feeling that the old fenmen of yesteryear would approve.
[i] A History of Spalding E H Gooch 1940
[ii] Reminiscences of Fen and Mere J M Heathcote 1876
[iii] The History and Antiquities of Boston – this book is referred to heavily by the author.
[iv] South Holland Magazine 1869
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