Gateshead, Chirche yar Fishery

HER Number:
12233

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Gateshead, Chirche yar Fishery

Place:
Gateshead

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:
Chirche yar in 1128, Chirche yare, Kirkeyere in 1279, Kirkyare in 1344. 'Cirice' is old English for 'church'. Thus this was a weir belonging to or near to a church. The bishop of Durham had two weirs in Gateshead. One of them is listed in the Northumberland Assize Roll of 1279 of weirs (gurgites) that had trespassed beyond their due limits, in this case 42 fathoms (teisias). In 1344 the weir extended to the regulation one third of the water of Tyne. It lay east of the medieval Tyne bridge. 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:
254

Northing:
638

Grid Reference:
NZ254638

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Victor Watts, 1986, Some Northumbrian Fishery Names II in Durham Archaeological Journal, 2, 1986, pp 55-61; Three Early Assize Rolls for… Northumberland, Surtees Society 88 (1891), 335