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buildings of considerable size, called Marsh House, built of brick 

 and roofed with pantiles. It is a typical Cleveland Farm House 

 of the better class, and doubtless at one time had a large extent of 

 land attached to it, but it is now in a dilapidated condition. In 

 the middle of the last century the Cleveland Hounds were 

 kennelled in part of the farm buildings. 



I visited and took measurements of the Decoy at the end of 

 January, 1887. The pipes and surroundings were then much 

 more distinctly traceable than they are now, The pipes were 

 formed at the sides of an irregular oblong lake or sheet of 

 water, marked on the ordnance map " The Fleet," fed and 

 emptied by a brook or stell, its longest diameter stretching east 

 and west. The water appears to shallow out on the north side, 

 and the greater portion of the sheet is now pretty well choked 

 up with flags and aquatic plants of various kinds. The north 

 side has been sheltered by a patch of shrubs and trees of 

 moderate growth, as evidenced by a few gaunt looking stems 

 and stumps which still remained, and which appeared to have 

 been chiefly willows. About four or five hundred yards to the 

 west of the Decoy was established an ironworks, and the date 

 of their erection in 1870-72 sealed the fate of the Decoy, the 

 working of which was discontinued about that time, and the 

 smoke and fumes from the ironworks also compassed the destruc- 

 tion of the shrubbery. 



There were, at the time of my visit, four trenches (or pipes 

 as they are called when complete with their net covered arches). 

 One, however, had the mouth closed from the sheet of water, 

 a narrow strip having been levelled with the ground at each 

 side of the pipe, thus cutting it off from the lake. The other 

 three, though partially choked up with weeds, still contained 

 water, and by the side many short posts, to which presumably 

 the rods were fixed which supported the nets. The trenches or 

 pipes varied in depth below the general surface of the ground 

 from about two to four feet. They are, however, a good deal 

 choked up with vegetation and, doubtless, were deeper when in 

 use. In size and shape they are very much alike, and their 

 dimensions agree very closely with those at Fritton, in Norfolk, 

 described by Mr. G. C. Davis, in his Norfolk Broads and Rivers. 

 The width at the mouth between the posts was about 18 feet, 

 and at the centre of the bend about 11 feet, from which they 

 gradually taper to a point. The length of the chord of the 

 bend from the mouth to the extreme end is about 130 feet, and 

 the distance along the outside curve is about 220 feet. 



