A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



But we must now pass to the fisheries, which are styled in Essex 

 ' piscinae.' We find that these were not restricted to river or eel fisheries, 

 as was usually the case, but included coast fisheries. They occur at the 

 following places on or close to the coast : Mistley (i), Little Oakley 

 (i), Clacton (i), East Mersea (4), West Mersea (i), 1 Tollesbury (i), 

 Osea Island (i), Bradwell-by-the-Sea (i), Lawling in Latchendon (i), 2 

 'Hacflet' (i),Tillingham (i), Southchurch (2), Benfleet (i), Vange (i), 

 Fobbing (^ and |), Horndon-on-the-Hill (i), Mucking (i), East Til- 

 bury (i), Chadwell (a), 1 Grays Thurrock (i), 1 West Thurrock (i, 

 but 2 in 1086), Barking (i), Ilford (i). The last twelve places lay 

 along the Thames. Of these salt water fisheries the nature, at that time, 

 is obscure, and they must be dealt with in a special note appended to 

 this Introduction, in which it will be suggested that they were akin to 

 the weir. The fisheries on the river Lea form a distinct group. These 

 would clearly be weir fisheries such as bridled, we know, the Thames 

 and the Medway, 3 the Exe* and the Severn. 5 We trace them up from 

 Leyton, where there had been 9^, through Walthamstow, where there 

 had been 6 with 3! more at Higham, and Chingford, where there were 

 6, to Waltham Abbey, where were 5, and Nasing where there was 

 ' half a fishery.' 6 At Leyton all had disappeared ; at Walthamstow and 

 Higham all but one. Of ' fisheries ' inland we have mention only of 

 one each at Wormingford, Hutton and Springfield, and two-thirds 

 of one at Marshalls in Hatfield Peverel, of one at Bardfield, added 

 since the Conquest, and one at Wheatley in Rayleigh, to which a 

 second had similarly been added. Mention may here be made of the 

 ' fisherman ' who occurs on the Bishop of London's manor at Little 

 Totham, and of the ' 5 bordars by (super) the water, who hold no land,' 

 at Leigh, on the Thames, for they suggest the infancy of that little 

 port which, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, was * stocked with lusty 

 seamen.' 



It is needless to dwell on the importance, at that period, of salt, 

 especially in a county so far distant from the brinepits of Worcestershire 

 or Cheshire. A good supply must have been needed for the marsh-made 

 cheese alone. The distribution of the saltpans was in Essex extremely 

 local, being virtually restricted to the Hundreds of Tendring, Winstree 

 and Thurstable in the north-east of the county. Lawford, Bradfield, 

 Wrabness and Ramsey had one each, to which another had been added 



1 Before the Conquest. 2 Since the Conquest. 



3 It was granted by ' Magna Carta ' that ' Omnes kydelli de cetero deponantur penitus de 

 Thamisia, et de Medewaye, et per totam Angliam, nisi per costeram maris.' This last clause may 

 throw some light on the nature of the coast fisheries of Essex (see p. 424 below). 



4 'The city had to defend her commercial being against successive earls. In Henry the Third's 

 reign the first hindrance to navigation was caused by the Countess Isabel, who made a weir which is 

 still called after her Countess Weir. She did however leave a narrow passage for ships, but afterwards 

 the passage was closed ' (Freeman's Exeter, p. 84). 



8 See Seebohm's English Village Community, pp. 1 504. 



6 An interesting fine of 1228 (12 Hen. III.) relates to the right to ' fix a weir and make a fishery' 

 within certain limits at Nasing. It speaks of a ' fishery ' being ' cast down ' (pros train), which implies a 

 weir. A fishery could be halved either by dividing the profits or by the holder of each moiety having 

 the right to it for three days out of each week. 



380 



