THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. | |
| The Grange Decoy, in Tillingham Marsh, south of the Blackwater, on land belonging to the Rev. H. Jones, and now in the occupation of Mr. Charles Page of Grange Farm, Dengie, is 2 miles SE. of Tillingham, and ¾ of a mile from the sea-shore. The pool is rather more than an acre in extent, and has six pipes. The average take is from 1,500 to 2,000 fowl, chiefly Wigeon. This Decoy, like its neighbour at "Marsh House," is situated on the flats, near the coast; these flats consist of broad reclaimed meadows, intersected by ditches, and protected from inroads of the tide by a sea-wall, and extend from near the mouth of the Blackwater estuary to that of the Crouch. The present tenant of the Decoy has held it for thirty years, and is a brother of the lessee of the Marsh House Decoy. Both this Decoy and the adjoining one at Marsh House change about very curiously in regard to the way in which the Wigeon frequent them. For several seasons the one pool will keep the lead of Wigeon, and then the other has its turn. Or these birds will desert one pool for the other for no apparent reason. The only other Decoy in use in Essex is the "Old Hall," which, as it is on the north bank of the Blackwater, is described later on, at page 86. Glebeland Decoy, S. of the Blackwater, 1¼ miles SSE. of Bradgate-juxta-Mare, has been disused for more than sixty years. Its position is not far from the Marsh House, and in the same parish,-but a mile further north, near Sandbeach outfall, and ¾ of a mile from the sea. It is to this Decoy that Daniel refers in his ' Rural Sports' (vol. iii. p.266), where he states that "in 1799, 10,000 head of Wigeon, Teal, and Wild Duck were caught in a Decoy of the Rev. Bate Dudley's, in Essex." An old Rate Book in the Vestry at Tillingham gives the names of successive owners of the Decoy, as follows:- | |
| 1795. Mr. Mascall. 1797. The. Rev. H. B. Dudley. 1805. Mr. Alston. 1811. Mr. Kebbell. 1815. Mr. R. Willes,- | |
| The last tenant before it was given up in 1822. | |
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