ULAS
University of Leicester Archaeological Services

Hemington, Leicestershire

Shooting and Fishing the Trent - Results from Hemington Quarry

Sand and gravel extraction at Hemington Quarry has now moved into the parish of Castle Donington following the course of the medieval river Trent. Since 1985 this channel system has revealed over 50 wonderfully preserved timber structures and the last year saw some important additions to the group.

Fishweir

Further work on a well-preserved fishweir showed it to be a ‘double-V’ type stretching some 60m along the medieval channel. These types of fishweirs, known as hedge weirs, comprised lines of wattle fences which directed fish into traps or nets. The upstream ‘V’ proved to have been deeply scoured but the downstream ‘V’ looked more promising. Almost immediately we found a mass of collapsed posts and a complete wooden maul (large, heavy mallet), presumably lost whilst driving in timber piles. Further digging in this area revealed a large collapsed wattle panel some 8m long but, alas, no fish trap.

However, further investigations along one of the post lines provided our first positive evidence for fishing in the form of a small wicker fish trap. The trap was staked to the river bed against brushwood bundles which, themselves, were placed against a wattle fence. From its size and position (entrance facing downstream) it can be surmised that it was probably used to catch yellow eels. The trap was successfully lifted using an innovative method - freezing it with liquid nitrogen.

One of the brushwood bundles contained a sheep metapodial (toe bone), probably serving as bait. This would seem to be an eel tuft, a type of fish trap still used in Germany to this day. The tufts attract small eels for food and shelter. They are periodically emptied by either lifting and shaking in the water, catching the fish in a scoop net, or quickly lifting the whole bundle into a boat.

An enigmatic wooden artefact recovered next to the eel tuft appears to be the head of a pulse stick, a device for driving fish into traps. In Germany these are still used to scare eels into trammel nets.

Basket weir

The most recent excavation revealed a large submerged dam or weir formed by two parallel lines of oak piles lined with wattle sheeting and infilled with large blocks of stone. At the riverward end was a V-shaped arrangement of posts with some plank revetting and horizontal timbers jointed to upright piles. At this point the river bed had been artificially raised with layers of wattle panels and gravel, capped by a surface of large stone blocks. Large oak baseplates were also incorporated into this raised platform. The joint types show Saxo-Norman carpentry, but more precise tree-ring dating is awaited.

Perhaps the most amazing discovery was this large wicker fish trap positioned at the apex. The trap was a cone-shaped basket over 2m long with two internal funnels (non-return valves), the size and arrangement suggesting that it was a silver eel trap. Fragments of another similar basket were found nearby lying on top of the weir.

Initially the structure was thought to be a mill dam, similar to one recorded at the quarry in 1985. However, with the absence of any evidence for milling, but definite evidence for fishing, the structure has been interpreted as one of the more substantial ‘fixed engine’ fishery sites, cytwera or basket weirs mentioned in medieval documents.

Shoots

Downstream of the weir, several bankside structures termed ‘shoots’ have been investigated. These structures were triangular jetties extending from the river bank as two lines of oak piles with plank revetment to encase a mass of sandstone blocks and brushwood. They functioned by diverting the flow of the river away from an eroding bank and/or to deepen the channel to make it navigable. One structure has a timber with a latest felling date of 1325, and three others have produced estimated felling dates in the first quarter of the 14th century.

Conclusion

The recent work at Hemington Quarry has provided further insights into the crafts and industries practised in this stretch of the river in the medieval period. Of particular significance is the unique evidence for fishing in a British inland context. The scale of the recently excavated basket weir demonstrates that considerable resources were invested in the fishery, and that it was almost certainly a manorial concern (historically there were two fisheries, one owned by the crown, centred at King’s Mills and the manorial fishery extending to Tipnall Meadows, the current extraction area). The evidence for waterworks at such an early date is also of interest, and possibly had repercussions on the modelling of channel systems in this reach. This archaeological evidence for increasing channel dynamism is also reflected in the historical flood records for this period.

Significantly, this period sees the demise of the Hemington bridge crossing, probably made redundant by flood damage and channel migration.

We would like to thank the landowner Mr Hicklin and Lafarge Redland Aggregates Ltd. for their co-operation with this project.