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

Fishing Site

Site Type: Specific

Fish Weir

General Period

MEDIEVAL

Specific Period

Medieval 1066 to 1540

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

420300

Northing

562800

Grid Reference

NZ420300562800

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