Chapter XXIX: Appendix: A (p. 37)

_Salmon Fishery_.—Both locally, and thence to the country at large, the bay beneath the Beachley and the Sedbury Cliffs was very important, as being one centre of the Severn Salmon Fisheries. The following notes by Mr. Frank Buckland,[117] Government Inspector of Salmon Fishing for England and Wales, are interesting: “The visitor will observe in the lower estuary stretching for a considerable distance into the water from the muddy banks, rude piers made entirely of wicker work, which look like large eel-baskets; these are called ‘ranks’ of ‘putchers.’ Each putcher is about 5 ft. 6 in. long, and 21 inches across the mouth. A framework is made by driving stakes into the mud, and the putchers are then fastened together in rows one above the other, often to the height of 10 feet or more; these great walls of baskets look not unlike, as my friend the late John Keast Lord remarked, ‘a gigantic wine rack filled with bottles, encased in wicker work.’ As the salmon come along with the tide in the thick muddy Severn water, they run their noses into the open mouths of the putchers, and speedily get jammed up at the narrow end; the poor things cannot turn, and the more they struggle to get out, the firmer they become wedged in; as the tide recedes they are left high and dry. I have often observed that wasps wait about till the tide goes down, and then take first cut at the salmon. A great many first-class Severn salmon are caught in these putchers and sent to the London market.”

With regard to another form of baskets used for catching flat fish, &c., at p. 368, he says:—

“Besides the putchers another kind of basket is used which is called putts; ... the wicker work is much closer in this instance than in the other. The putt in its most special form consists of three parts, the large part or mouth, called the ‘putt’; the middle called the ‘butt’; and the small end or bag, called the ‘firwell.’... The diameter of the opening is about 5 feet, and the length from 12 to 13 feet; they are used to catch flat fish, &c.” The illustration (fig. A, page 36), given by Mr. Buckland shows the putt, with the small end or “firwell” removed.

The above technical description of the arrangement, measurement, &c., of the “putts” and “putchers,” corresponds in most points with the details of the long rows (three or four in number) running out into the river beneath the Sedbury cliffs (plate X.).