Planning permission
The monks of Byland clearly learnt from past experiences, and
in the thirteenth century ensured they had written confirmation
of their right to make a dam at Cams Head. An agreement was
drawn up with the Colville and Dayvill families authorising
the monks to create, build and repair the fishpond here. The
monks agreed that should the water flood the road leading from
their abbey to Kilburn, they would remake this.
[McDonnell, 'Inland fisheries', pp. 25-26.]
Byland may have had about twelve fish ponds (stews)
in the early fourteenth century, with a combined size of about sixty
hectares. Today, these form some of the best-preserved earthworks
in Yorkshire.(20)
The earliest pond was at Kilburn, south of the valley, and was built
when the community was still at Stocking and the site at New Byland
was being prepared for monastic occupation (1147-1177). This is
shown as Pond A on the map. The monks seemingly had permission from
Robert Dayvil to build a dam here but, without written authorisation
this right was contested and in 1190 the community was forced to
surrender its pond with the path that surrounded it so that Robert's
men could fish here, and also the dam that stood between High Kilburn
and Midelberg. Documentation of this dispute survives.(21)
Byland sought to create a second pond at Oldstead, by Cams Head
farm, and the community was granted permission to do so by Henry
III in 1234/5. This second pond was a little closer to the monastery
and also slightly smaller, covering about 45 acres. It is marked
as Pond B on the map. By 1245 the monks were ready to stock their
new pond and received ten prime female bream from the royal pond
at Foss, courtesy of Henry III.(22)
The large stone dam at Cams Head survives. It
extends some 400m in length and stands about five metres high. Cams
Head is of particular interest today and contains some of the best
earthworks of its kind. Excavation of the site here yielded a wealth
of information regarding the nature of monastic fishing in the Middle
Ages. A variety of clay and lead weights were uncovered, some of
which would have been used for trawling and others for hand-held
nets. A remarkable find was the remains of a medieval fishing hut,
complete with smoking house. This was uncovered to the south of
Olstead farm but has since been ploughed over. It was probably used
for storing tackle and curing fish, to preserve them.(23)
In addition to these large ponds, Byland established
two mill ponds to the south of the abbey, and a chain of small ponds
to the west of the precinct, on the way to Oldstead and the Hambleton
Hills. Each of these had its own dam.
The twelfth-century mill pond received the outfall from
the sewer and powered the cornmill. It was later used to supply
the abbey fulling mill, and a second mill pond was created
in the SW corner of the precinct to power the cornmill.