Five waterside buildings in the Broads have recently been listed as Grade II by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England. Four of them are Broads chalets, including Dutch Tutch, The Holt and Tower View in Potter Heigham, and Staithcote in Wroxham – all unique, creative buildings in character with the special, and sometimes even quirky, character of the Broads.
But the smallest and architecturally the plainest of these five buildings is the Eel Sett, which is little more than a modest wooden shed on the water’s edge at Candle Dyke near Hickling Broad. Despite its simple design, the Eel Sett is arguably the most important of all the newly listed buildings because it is of such cultural and environmental, as well as architectural, significance.
Most visitors to the Broads today will never see a European Eel, either alive or dead, but at one time, it was fished in huge numbers from the Broads and was commonplace on the fishmonger’s slab. In the Victorian era and right up to the Second World War, eels were popular eating, particularly in working-class areas of London, where jellied eels were served as an accompaniment to meat pie, mashed potato and parsley sauce in ‘Pie and Mash’ shops - today themselves the subject of heritage listing.
The European Eel needs to be remembered for more than just its culinary popularity. The extraordinary life cycle starts as a tiny leaf-shaped marine larva (the leptocephalus) in the Sargasso Sea near the Azores. For two or three years, the tiny larvae drift across the Atlantic Ocean to become glass eels as they reach continental waters, before developing into pigmented elvers and then the growth phase: the yellow eel. The final stage is the silver eel which, adapting to freshwaters, swims up rivers, feeding and growing all the while to reach 60-80cm (exceptionally 1.5M) and a weight of up to 2kg. With an average lifespan of 20 years, most eels have, for decades and even centuries, ended their lives in British and European waters, trapped by fishermen or weirs, locks and other river architecture. But the lucky few that survive the predations of the freshwater fishery industry and the impediments to the return migration swim back across the Atlantic to spawn and die in the Sargasso Sea. The European eel is truly one of the most astonishing migratory animals in nature.
The tradition of eel catching in the Broads dates back to the Middle Ages, when conical willow baskets, known as eel ‘bucks’, were strung across rivers to create weirs in which the migrating eels became trapped in large numbers. Unsurprisingly, these weirs were an impediment to navigation and as long ago as the Magna Carta in 1215, they were banned in all British rivers - not that anyone took much notice! With the advent of net technologies, eel fishermen took to laying long weighted nets overnight across the bottom of rivers - the eel’s preferred habitat, before pulling them the following morning before navigation traffic built up.
An eel sett was a place to keep the nets, and for the fisherman to spend the night. At one time, there were many along the rivers in Norfolk, typically in isolated and rural places. The Eel Sett at Candle Dyke, a remote location in the parish of Potter Heigham, is thought to be the last in England. Its architectural style, and evidence from mapping and photography, dates it to the early 20th century. A single storey with one room, the building is a simple structure with vertical boarding, a tarred finish, a profiled red metal roof and a projecting (and somewhat enigmatic) ‘Stop Eel Net’ sign. Inside are two wooden bunks, a stove, cupboards and a freestanding sink.
Regrettably, the number of European Eels arriving in Europe plummeted in the late 20th century, falling by around 95% in just the last 40 years. It’s almost certain that the eel-catching industry removed so many mature fish from British and European rivers that, eventually, too few got back to the Sargasso Sea to produce the massive numbers of larvae needed to survive the Atlantic crossing. The well-researched IUCN Red List has now classified them as Critically Endangered and conservation efforts have at last been started, with the help of many organisations and citizen scientists.
Keith Bacon, President of the Broads Society and someone who knows such waterside buildings well said: “We have always known that the Eel Sett is of unique importance as the last surviving building of its kind in England, so we were delighted to learn that English Heritage would survey it for possible Grade II listing. Now that the listing is confirmed, we will ensure that our members are fully aware of its significance and, if possible, have a chance to visit and think about the fate of the European Eel.”
Kayleigh Judson, Broads Authority Heritage Planning Officer, said: “The waterside is a harsh environment, and these structures are particularly vulnerable to change. The new listings will help to preserve their special appearance by giving them the protection they deserve, so that their unique characteristics can be appreciated for generations to come.”
The Eel Sett site was purchased from Potter Heigham Poors Trust (now Potter Heigham Trust Fund) by Cyril Hugh Kinder who was keen to see its continued use as a working sett. In 1999 a Trust deed was agreed between Mr Kinder, the Broads Authority and the Broads Society, who each made equal contributions towards the purchase and agreed to cover the running costs for the future management and upkeep. The Trust deed established a small group of trustees, including Mr Kinder’s successors, the Chair of the Broads Authority and the Chair of the Broads Society. In practice, the Broads Authority has, since 2002, ensured the maintenance of the building and site.
The recent DCMS Heritage Listing is a significant milestone in the Eel Sett’s story. It provides a three-fold opportunity: for reflection on the lost culture of the eel fisherman, for promotion of conservation measures for the near-extinct European Eel, and for a new impetus in caring for the building as a symbol of the extraordinary heritage of the Norfolk Broads.
Mark Collins is Chair of the Broads Society
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Very interesting.. this Eel Set is iconic