Felling, Houden yar Fishery

HER Number:
12232

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Felling, Houden yar Fishery

Place:
Felling

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Agriculture and Subsistence

Site Type: Broad:
Fish Trap

Site Type: Specific:
Fish Weir

General Period:
Medieval

Specific Period:
C12-C14

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
Houden yar in 1128, Bondeneiare in 1195, Bondenyare, Bondenyare c. 1225, Bondyar in 1333 and 1438-9, Albondyare in 1328, Bondeniare in 1418. 'Bonda' means 'a peasant landowner' in old English. Thus 'the peasant's yair'. 'Bonda' was an adaptation of the Old Norse 'bondi' which meant husbandman, farmer or peasant. The term was used in the Laws of Cnut. This was 'Old Bondyare', which may be a reference to an old or rebuilt structure, weirs being vulnerable structures which needed frequent rebuilding. Belonged to the monks of Durham. The main catch would have been salmon, but in fact a wider range of fish would have been taken (eg. Eels, pike, minnow, burbot, trout and lamprey' {G.N. Garmondsway (ed), 1939, 'Aelfric's Colloquy', pp 101-2}.

Easting:
28

Northing:
63

Grid Reference:
NZ2863

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Victor Watts, 1986, Some Northumbrian Fishery Names II in Durham Archaeological Journal, 2, 1986, pp 55-61