Gateshead, Wyses Pul Fishery

HER Number:
12287

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Gateshead, Wyses Pul 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:
Wyses Pul in 1128, Wythes pole. 'Wiht' is in Old English a bend in a river or valley, weir of the river bend or at the bends. 'Widde' is old English for a with, an osier twig, a willow. Thus 'weir where withes are cut'. 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