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"One enormous transaction shows that Ely Abbey, now known as Ely Cathedral, paid Thorney Abbey 26,275 eels to rent a fen" -- Ely Abbey/Cathedral are probably
by zzbn00 3y ago
"One enormous transaction shows that Ely Abbey, now known as Ely Cathedral, paid Thorney Abbey 26,275 eels to rent a fen" -- Ely Abbey/Cathedral are probably named after eels: see section 8 of https://www.historyhit.com/paid-in-fish-strange-uses-for-eels-in-medieval-england/ https://www.historyhit.com/paid-in-fish-strange-uses-for-eel...
- fbdab103 3y agoIt was unclear to me the amount of difficulty in catching an eel and the value propositions 26,000 eels represents. From a full day of eel trapping, would I expect to bring home 10? 100? 1000? How many meals can I expect to make from a single eel?
- jaclaz 3y agoOnly as a reference, an eel (the European species, Anguilla Anguilla) is around 80-100 cm long and weights 2 to 3 kg. So, I would say probably like 10-20 eels per day, and 6-8 meals per eel.
- NegativeLatency 3y agoEpisode 4 from this series has a couple of eel catching related scenes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_Monastery_Farm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_Monastery_Farm I’d guess somewhere between 0 and 100, if you had some tenants working for you I could image 1000 although idk what you’d do with them immediately afterward salt/smoke them?
- zzbn00 3y agoI think you can keep them alive after capture for a little while at least in water -- I think I remember seeing this in the delta of the Neretva river (and I think they used old washing machine drums for this purpose!)
- perihelions 3y agoAlso https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/browse/id/5328736fb47fc40c4f00 https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/browse/id/5328736fb47fc40c4f00... ("Survey of English Place-Names") - "OE ǣl -gē , ēl -gē , 'eel-district,' as already suggested by Skeat and Ekwall... Rents of eels were a fruitful source of income for the abbots and bishops of Ely."