HISTORY OF DECOYS. | |
| Bournemouth. - Lord Malmesbury states that on the streams at Bournemouth sixty years ago, before the present town arose, there used to be a Decoy, the site of which is still known as the "`coy Pond." No particulars, however, of its working are now obtainable. I must here refer to Souley Pond, 7 miles N E. of Lymington, in the parish of Beaulieu on Lord Henry Scott's estate near the Beaulieu river estuary, and once the property of the famous Abbey of Beaulieu. This large piece of water is frequented in severe weather by numbers of wildfowl from off the Solent, and could be made into a first-class Decoy at any time. Though sometimes spoken of as The Decoy locally, it never was one, as it was formed to work by water-pressure the iron hammers used for shaping metal for vessels, as well as for other purposes, in the days when wood was the only fuel available for smelting purposes. The old forge is still well remembered in the locality, and the beat of the hammers could, in a SW. wind, be heard at Beaulicu, 4 miles distant. New Forest.-An enclosure in the New Forest is still called the Decoy Pond, though it is now devoid of water. It is situated half way between Beaulieu and Lyndhurst, on the head waters of the Beaulieu river, near Ipley Farm, a little N. of Yew Tree Heath and Blackdown. In a map Of 1789 it is marked at that date even as "The old Decoy Pond," so that, as may be supposed, there are no records of it to be found. | |
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DECOYS IN THE COUNTY OF HEREFORD. | |
Decoys in use. None. | Decoys not in use. Shobdon Court. |
| Shobdon Court, 5½ miles E. of Presteigne (Lord Bateman's). There used to be a Decoy here on a pool of eight acres, with three pipes, and many years ago Lord Bateman had a new pipe made by George Skelton, junior, who came from Norfolk to construct it. But this, together with the others, became silted up, and the Decoy has been practically useless for twenty years. Lord Bateman tells me that he remembers catching thirty-five ducks in it at one time. | |