Page 153 HISTORY OF DECOYS.

HISTORY OF DECOYS.

These lands lie so low that formerly, during exceptionally high tides, the sea frequently broke into them over the sea-walls and laid many thousand acres under water, and in many parts they are still liable to be flooded by freshwaters during the winter. Though there were other considerable tracts of marsh lands in this county, such as Kenn Moor, near Clevedon, NE. of the River Yeo it was, and indeed is, those previously named that are most haunted by wildfowl, and about which the Decoys of Somerset are placed.

DECOYS IN THE COUNTY OF SOMERSET.
Decoys in use.
	Sharpham Park. Shapwick.	King's Sedgemoor (3).

Decoys not in use.
	Meare. Compton Dundon. Aller. Godney. Westbury.	Stoke. Nyland. Cheddar Water. Kenn Moor.

Sharpham Park, 2 miles SW of Glastonbury, formerly attached to the Abbey of Glastonbury. The Decoy is situated between Glastonbury and Walton. It is now part of the estate of Lord Kilcoursie and is at present let to Mr. G. Porter, the tenant of the farm. This Decoy is the most ancient in the county, and all the other Decoys in Somerset closely resemble it in shape and size, and were without doubt copied from it. For a plan of it, see plan facing page 93, Berkeley Decoy. It is placed in what was formerly the Deer Park of the Abbot of Glastonbury, and had-or for that matter may have now, if by necessity enforced-a faculty, giving extensive rights of stopping trespass, and enforcing quiet in its neighbourhood should occasion demand. In the vicinity of the Decoy are the remains of the Fish House and Stews, that, together with the wildfowl obtained in the neighbourhood, supplied the refectory of the Monks of Glastonbury and the table of its Abbot.