How were fishponds introduced, farmed and spread in Scandinavia and the Baltic Region in early modern times? What was their economic, social and religious importance? Which fish species were significant and why? This book uncovers a long, now broken, tradition that barely left traces in the written record or physical environment. Its broad and multidisciplinary scope highlights the situation from medieval times until the late nineteenth century. Besides Scandinavia and the Baltic States, insights from England are also introduced. Several socio-cultural domains have been identified: late medieval monastic fishponds; late medieval aristocratic fishponds associated with castles and manors; seventeenth and eighteenth century ponds rectory ponds as well as urban ponds from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century.
Author(s): Madeleine Bonow, Håkan Olsén, Ingvar Svanberg (eds.)
Publisher: Södertörn University
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 204
City: Stockholm
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 fishponds99
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
