Duck decoys

Recently, I passed a sign to ‘Decoy’ near Watton which caught my attention as I had only discovered what a decoy was last year when holidaying in East Anglia. Essentially a duck decoy was an idea imported from the Netherlands and was a place where ducks could be caught for food. The name derives from Dutch meaning ‘duck cage’, and consisted of a central pool with several ‘pipes’ radiating from it where the ducks could be funnelled into the enclosed pond. Duck decoys were used locally from Tudor times.

There are several examples in the Hull valley, including the one at Watton. Others include one at Meaux (420 yds south west of Meaux Decoy Farm) which shows up clearly on Google Earth images.  A third is located at Scorborough, where the names Decoy Wood and Decoy Farm give a clue to its location. The Watton and Meaux decoys are very similar in plan. They all ceased to function in the late 18^th century for the same reason – the drainage of the adjacent carrs (wetlands) where the ducks resided. The Beverley and Barmston Drainage Act was passed in 1798. All three decoys are all now located amidst acres of arable fields, but as noted in the previous post, the surrounding areas would have been marshy at the time of the decoys. The Watton decoy was reported to produce as many as 400 ducks a day from 1000 acres of surrounding marshland – almost entirely gone today. In the late 19^th century it was still frequented by rare species of duck, garganeys, gadwalls and other birds like ruffs, which today are characteristic only of isolated wetland areas of the Hull valley like Tophill Low and Swinemoor.

The existence of these decoys is another reminder of the past landscape of the Hull valley but also of the strong influence the Netherlands has always had on this area. From Holland a wide variety of processes were imported into the East Riding, including land drainage techniques, brickmaking – and also the construction of duck decoys.