Swalwell, fish weir

HER Number:
13584

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Swalwell, fish weir

Place:
Swalwell

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Agriculture and Subsistence

Site Type: Broad:
Fish Trap

Site Type: Specific:
Fish Weir

General Period:
Medieval

Specific Period:
C16

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
A weir in tidal waters below Swalwell had served as a fishery. It must have been broken in 1551 to permit the passage of keels for Cuthbert Blunt, and later for his widow Barbara. The weir would have had an underwater foundation of stones surmounted by a fence of brushwood or reeds attached to stakes.

Easting:
203

Northing:
628

Grid Reference:
NZ203628

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Eric Clavering and Alan Rounding, 1995, Early Tyneside Industrialism: The lower Derwent and Blaydon Burn Valleys 1550-1700, Archaeologia Aeliana, Series 5, Vol XXIII, page 255