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Author
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Topic: fishing in moats
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Glaive203
Senior Member
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posted 11-02-2000 06:27 PM
 
Obviously castles of the fortified manor/concentric castle period could use their lake like moats as fishing ponds;but did they use any of them as fish "farms" to raise eels to harvest and were any other types of fish stocked in them? Finally,were any earlier river fed moats used as fishing holes and what sort of fish were caught? |
wurdsmiff
unregistered
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posted 11-03-2000 09:04 AM
I have not read any references relating to early fish farming. In Scotland we have a large collection of lochs abundant in fish, and there are numerous references to fish being caught using a variety of methods- trapping,spearing, netting, fixed line, and even the strange case of the leashed swan at Inchmaholm on Lake of Menteith, where a short line with fish bait was attached to the leg. When a pike took the bait, the swan became distressed, and the monks of the priory retreived the leash, swan and pike. After my previous explanation of this, some one suggested that this may be why swans had long necks.
I can't imagine that most moats would be very productive fisheries due to the pollution from the castle. Even with a flowing water source, rotten material within the moat- including effluent, would make fish life unsustainable. As for types of fish caught for food, that would obviously depend on what was available. Huge quantities of shells and fish debris were discovered at a variety of Scottish castles near the sea, notably at Finlaggan on Islay.
Inland, fresh water species used for food were Pike, Perch,Eels, Roach, Salmon, Trout, ....
basically they would eat what they caught. Carp were introduced as a food fish by the Romans, and continued to be used as such further south in the UK. They were introduced to Scotland much later. Although coarse fish are not rgularly consumed as food in the UK, game fish being preferred, the coarse species remain popular on the continent. ------------------
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Merlin
Senior Member
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posted 11-06-2000 08:08 AM
Pollution of the moats sure was a problem for keeping fish in them (or even crocodiles like in some stranger tales). I know of some castles that use their moats in that sense today, but I don't think this goes back to the days before they had canalization.Ponds for fish-farming were a common item of royal residences in France and Germany, since the merovingian and carolingian kings began to leave the old roman palaces in the towns and build new ones on open land (like Compiègne in France) from the 7th century onwards. I'm not sure what kind of fish they kept there, but the trout was one of them. Some abbeys, not seldom founded by the same kings and used as residences from time to time, had their own ponds: I know that the abbey of Zurich had ponds for fish-farming near the lake. So I think that also some castles had their own ponds. Merlin
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Philip Davis
unregistered
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posted 11-16-2000 05:00 PM
Fish ponds seem to have been common all over England, associated with monastries, large houses and castles. Numerous other ponds both natural and manmade also existed for other reasons but also stocked fish. It's worth remembering that castle moats also varied from generally dry ditches through marsh, dirty channels and up to the extensive are large waterworks of Kenilworth and Caerphilly castle (both of which would have supported masses of fish). Oliver Rackham in his The Illustrated History of the Countryside says medival manuscripts mention pike, trout, eel, bream, carp, perch and tench all being not only caught but farmed in ponds. He also says that there are about 5000 moats in England. Most of these are not castle moats but much smaller moats built around manor houses (and other moderate sized houses) more as a defense against thieves than against armies (and as a fashion statement - particually those of Elizabethan date)------------------
And as I rode by Dalton-Hall Beneath the turrets high, A maiden on the castle-wall Was singing merrily: The Outlaw by Sir Walter Scott
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