HISTORY OF DECOYS. | |
| There were four Pipes, two Of which only were in regular use, each 50 yards in length. The exact position of this Decoy may be described as on the cast side of the railway at Tod Point, between Eston and Redcar, and almost directly opposite the present kennels of the Cleveland Foxhounds. Some five-and-twenty years ago this Decoy was very productive, when the Tees Bay and neighbouring marshes were much frequented by wildfowl, as many as 100 Ducks and Wigeon having been taken at once in a single pipe; though on this occasion, owing to the weight of fowl enclosed, the net broke and the greater number escaped. But after the erection of blast | |
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| furnaces at Tod Point in 1872, and the proximity of the railway and kennels, the wildfowl have deserted the spot and the Decoy since that date has been abandoned. Nothing now remains but the pool with a few stunted bushes growing near it. Escrick Park, 7 miles south of York, the seat of Lord Wenlock. There were formerly two Decoys here, one of which, made by old George Skelton, about 1830 with four pipes, was used until the year 1860. The formation of an island in the pool operated prejudicially, for fewer fowl were subsequently taken, and it was eventually abandoned. Of the other Decoy, situated in the park, some 200 yards only from the mansion, nothing now remains but a stagnant pool overgrown with rushes, no trace of the pipes being observable. | |