Gateshead, Snegeyare Fishery

HER Number:
12273

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Gateshead, Snegeyare 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:
Snegezare in 1403, Snegyare in 1406 and 1410. 'Snegge' is Middle English for 'snail' but is only recorded in southern sources. 'Snag' is a C16 word for a tree stump or a trunk or branch of a tree embedded in the bottom of a river forming an impediment to navigation. Therefore this may be an earlier variant of the word referring to a type of weir or trap. 'Snegga' is old English for a trap or snare. 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