Historical Aquaculture in Northern Europe

206 Pages·2016·7.98 MB·English

H Historical
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r AQUACULTURE
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EUROPE
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How were fishponds introduced, farmed and spread in tu
Scandinavia and the Baltic Region in early modern times? r
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What was their economic, social and religious importance? i
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Which fish species were significant and why?
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This book uncovers a long, now broken, tradition that barely r
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left traces in the written record or physical environment. Its h
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broad and multidisciplinary scope highlights the situation r
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from medieval times until the late nineteenth century.
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Besides Scandinavia and the Baltic States, insights from u
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England are also introduced. o
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Several socio-cultural domains have been identified: late e

medieval monastic fishponds; late medieval aristocratic fish-
ponds associated with castles and manors; seventeenth and
eighteenth century ponds rectory ponds as well as urban B
o
ponds from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth n
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century. w Edited by
, O Madeleine Bonow
ls Håkan Olsén
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n Ingvar Svanberg

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Distribution:
Södertörns högskola
www.sh.se/publications
[email protected]
Historical Aquaculture
in Northern Europe

Historical Aquaculture
in Northern Europe
Edited by
Madeleine Bonow
Håkan Olsén
and Ingvar Svanberg
Södertörn University
The Library
SE-141 89 Huddinge
www.sh.se/publications
© The authors
Cover image: Pond Crucian Carp (Dammruda) from Mörkö,
illustrated by Wilhelm von Wright and taken from
Skandinaviens fiskar: målade efter lefvande exemplar och ritade på sten
Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner, 1836–1857
Cover: Jonathan Robson
Graphic Form: Per Lindblom & Jonathan Robson
Printed by Elanders, Stockholm 2016
Research Report 2016:1
ISBN 978–91–87843–62–4
Contents
Preface ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 11
Ornamental fishponds ......................................................................................................... 13
The future of cyprinid culture ............................................................................................ 16
CHAPTER 1 – James Bond
Fishponds in the Monastic Economy in England .................................................................. 29
Fish in the monastic diet ...................................................................................................... 30
The chronology of monastic fishponds ............................................................................. 32
Monastic precinct fishponds: layout and form ................................................................ 35
Fishponds on monastic manors and granges ................................................................... 39
Stocking and management of ponds .................................................................................. 41
Fish-houses and associated buildings ................................................................................ 43
Amenity and symbolism ...................................................................................................... 44
Excavated monastic fishponds ............................................................................................ 45
The monastic contribution to fish farming ...................................................................... 46
Monastic fishponds after the dissolution .......................................................................... 48
CHAPTER 2 – Stanisław Cios
The History of Aquaculture in Poland .................................................................................... 59
Carp culture ........................................................................................................................... 59
Changes in pond culture ...................................................................................................... 64
Crucian carp culture ............................................................................................................. 66
Trout culture ......................................................................................................................... 68
CHAPTER 3 – Erik Hofmeister
From Carp to Rainbow Trout Freshwater Fish Production in Denmark .......................... 77
The Danish monasteries and carp ...................................................................................... 78
Fish farming in the early modern period (1500–1800s) ................................................. 79
Destruction and prosperity ................................................................................................. 82
Decline of common and crucian carp farming ................................................................ 83
Modern fish farming ............................................................................................................. 83
The Danes’ taste for freshwater fish ................................................................................... 84
CHAPTER 4 – Madeleine Bonow and Ingvar Svanberg
Historical Pond-Breeding of Cyprinids in Sweden and Finland .......................................... 89
Early evidence ........................................................................................................................ 90
Monastic pond-culture ......................................................................................................... 92
Fish taxa kept in the ponds .................................................................................................. 93
After the reformation ........................................................................................................... 97
Fishponds in manorial culture ............................................................................................ 98
Rectory fishponds.................................................................................................................. 99
Urban fishponds .................................................................................................................. 101
Construction and management of ponds ........................................................................ 103
Farmed fish for food ........................................................................................................... 105
The end of an era ................................................................................................................. 106
A renewed interest in aquaculture .................................................................................... 108
Final remarks ....................................................................................................................... 110
CHAPTER 5 – Anne Karin Hufthammer and Dagfinn Moe
Fishponds and Aquaculture in Historical Times in Norway .............................................. 121
Carp and crucian carp in Norway .................................................................................... 122
Zooarchaeological evidence ............................................................................................... 124
Ponds and lakes ................................................................................................................... 127
CHAPTER 6 – Madeleine Bonow, Stanisław Cios and Ingvar Svanberg
Fishponds in the Baltic States Historical Cyprinid Culture
in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ............................................................................................. 139
The monasteries .................................................................................................................. 140
City ponds ............................................................................................................................ 141
Manorial pond culture during Swedish rule ................................................................... 142
Fishponds at Estonian and Livonian manors after 1710 ............................................... 144
Carp ponds on Lithuanian estates .................................................................................... 145
Modernisation of aquaculture ........................................................................................... 147
CHAPTER 7 – James Bond
The Increase of those Creatures that are Bred and Fed
in the Water Fishponds in England and Wales .................................................................... 157
The investigation of fishponds .......................................................................................... 158
The terminology of medieval fishing and fishponds ..................................................... 159
Edible freshwater fish in medieval Britain ...................................................................... 160
The origins of artificial fishponds in Britain ................................................................... 162
Royal fishponds ................................................................................................................... 163
Episcopal fishponds ............................................................................................................ 165
Baronial and manorial fishponds ..................................................................................... 166
The construction of fishponds .......................................................................................... 167
The size and form of medieval fishpond ......................................................................... 171
The management of medieval fishponds ........................................................................ 175
Fishing methods in the middle ages ................................................................................. 177
Freshwater fish production in the later middle ages ..................................................... 179
From the reformation to the civil war ............................................................................. 181
The late seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries .................................................... 185
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ........................................................................ 188
Contributors .............................................................................................................................. 201

Preface
This book is being published in order to highlight a little-known aspect of
animal husbandry in former times, namely the keeping, storing and cultiva-
tion of crucian carp (Carassius carassius), carp (Cyprinus carpio), tench
(Tinca tinca) and other cyprinids in man-made ponds. Aquaculture was an
innovation that spread rapidly in northern Europe in late medieval times.
Cyprinid ponds continued to be of some importance for the local economies
in Scandinavia until the nineteenth century, and have also survived to some
extent in regions such as Poland and the southern Baltic region. Although
some old ponds remain and traces of others can be seen in the landscape, this
historical fish production under human care is very little known in this part
of Europe. Cultivation of salmonid fish is of more recent date which is not
covered in this book. Pond rearing of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis),
rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) started
late nineteenth century.
Although an increasing interest in the importance of aquaculture in earlier
times has been noted especially in the UK, it has otherwise not been the subject
of much research. The aim of this book is to remedy this deficiency. It deals
with the variety and complexity that characterize aquaculture in the pre-
industrial Baltic region (Scandinavia, the Baltic States and Poland) and the
British Isles. Six case studies present historical aquaculture with a special
emphasis on cyprinids (crucian carp, carp, tench and other species) that were
bred in captivity in man-made ponds. The case studies cover various regions
of northern and north-western Europe and show similarities but also dif-
ferences due to cultural, economic and social circumstances. The introductory
section consists of two chapters, which provide a general discussion on the
importance of and a possible future for cyprinids in aquaculture, and the role
of fishponds in pre-modern monastic economies.
The book is a result of the research project “The Story of the Crucian Carp
(Carassius carassius) in the Baltic Sea region: History and a Possible Future” at
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