Gateshead, Toulershell fishery

HER Number:
12278

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Gateshead, Toulershell 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

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
Toulershell in 1344. 'Stell' is Old English for a fishing station. 'Schela' is Old English for a fisherman's hut. 'Toullere' means a tax-gatherer. 'Toll-gear' would be a weir that pays a toll. Belonged to the bishop of Durham. Below Gateshead Park, east of the Tyne bridge. The weir at this fishery is probably Helperyare (HER 12257). 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:
24

Northing:
63

Grid Reference:
NZ2463

Lats/Lons:

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