62 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



August, 1663, it does not appear to have then existed. For informa- 

 tion as to this decoy, I am indebted to Mr. Fitch. 



The above are all on the S. of the Blackwater, except the 

 last-named. Those on the N. bank (also ten in number), passing 

 from W. to E., are : — 



(12.) Goldhanger Decoy (No. i), which was one mile S.W. 

 from Goldhanger, two and a half miles E. from Maldon, and 150 

 paces from the shore. It had five pipes. Traces of it, situate on 

 Cobb's Farm, may still be seen. It was worked until about 1870.* 

 Mr. Fitch writes : — 



" This was used as a flight-pond until about twenty years ago, and has altered 

 little in appearance since then. A man named Cooper, who is now dea ', used to 

 take large numbers of Pochards in some seasons. His spring nets were attached 

 to long stout poles, which being weighted at one end were, by the removal of a 

 peg, made to fly up and extend the net at a height of about ten to twenty-five 

 feet. This was done when the gun was discharged. The birds, rising against 

 the wind, the flight of poles in that direction being sprung, struck the net and 

 fell down into the pens or pockets at thi bottom, from which they were unable 

 to rise, and were then secured." f 



(13.) Goldhanger Decoy (No. 2), was a very fine one, with eight 

 pipes. It lay one and a quarter miles E. of the former, on a point 

 of land on the N. side of Goldhanger Creek, and half a mile S.E. 

 from Goldhanger village. It has been worked within living memory. 



(13A.) Goldhanger Decoy (No. 3), presumably once existed 

 on " Decoy Marsh," which consists of about eight acres of grass- 

 land, lying next to the sea-wall, immediately in front of the farm- 

 house, on Bound's or Bartlett's Farm, Goldhanger, now held by Mr. 

 Abram Francis. It is called " Brand's Farm " on the six-inch 

 ordnance survey map, probably in error. No trace now exists of 

 either the decoy-pond or its pipes. This is another of Mr. Fitch's 

 discoveries. 



(14.) Joyce's Decoy, also known as the "Wigeon Pond," is half 

 a mile E. from the last named, one mile S.S.E. from Goldhanger, 

 and beside the creek running up to Joyce's Farm. It is in 



* Arthur Young was probably alluding to this decoy where he says (General View of the 

 Agriculture of the County of Essex, 1807, vol. ii. p. 362), ' Mr. Lee has a decoy at Goldhanger, 

 in which he took at one haul one waggonload and two cartloads of dunbirds ; but the disturbance 

 made frightened such as escaped so much that he took no more that season.' 



t This decoy probably existed in 1735, for, as Mr. Fitch points out, Salmon, in his History of 

 Essex (p. 426), alluding to the inundation in February, 1735, says that " Mr. John Cooper, a 

 great Decoyman at Goldhanger, and four others, perished." Probably the decoyman of the 

 same name mentioned above was a descendant of this one. 



