Vol. XXVII—Part VIII. Oct., 1943—March, 1944.
THE
Essex Naturalist:
BEING THE
Journal of the Essex Field Club.
THE DUCK DECOYS OF ESSEX.
By WILLIAM E. GLEGG, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.
[Read 31st January, 1942.]
(Continued from Vol. xxvii., p. 207.)
9. Steeple Decoy was on Canney Marsh, on the E. bank
of Steeple Creek, and midway between Steeple Church and the
Blackwater, on Steeple Hall Farm. This decoy is marked on
an old map of Essex, dated in MS. 1719 and entered in the
map catalogue as dated [1720 ?] in the British Museum. J. E.
Harting, in an article in The Field, vol. li, p. 419, has handed
down to us information about this decoy, such as does not exist
for any other. This article was written in 1879, and it informs
us that one hundred and sixty years previously a profitable
business was carried on in the capture of wildfowl, chiefly
Wigeon, on what was still known as Decoy Marsh. Fortunately
the Essex yeoman who was responsible for the construction
of this decoy kept a record of the cost of its construction and
also of the number of wildfowl and the prices they fetched
during a period of thirteen years. The information was derived
from a small folio volume bound in vellum and written between
the years 1713 and 1727, which was lent to Harting by Mr.
Robert Smith of Maldon, the owner of the volume. Christy
states that the existence of the book was discovered by E. A.
Fitch, who had informed him that it had been lost sight of and
probably destroyed. Steeple Decoy was originally constructed
in 1713, but in 1721 the owner enlarged it at considerable expense.
It appears that after digging the pond it was at first filled by
pumping from Steeple Creek, but afterwards from a well which