Spalding Gentlemen’s Society’s first What’s The Story? column explores the history of eels and their importance in our area

Spalding: The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society has a new series called “What’s The Story?” This series dives into the stories behind museum items. Today, they focus on eels, which were once a popular currency in Lincolnshire.

Eels look like snakes and are very slippery. They were loved in Medieval England. People ate them in huge numbers, and Lincolnshire was known for catching eels.

Naturalists and anglers have been fascinated by eels for centuries. In fact, eels were so valuable that they were used to pay rent to landowners, including kings.

In the marshy fens, people used special spears to catch eels. The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society displays two types of these spears at Ayscoughfee Hall. One is called a gleave, and the other is a pilger.

These spears helped catch eels by securing them between the tines. Anyone who has caught an eel knows how slippery they are. They can easily slip away, no matter how tightly you hold them.

In medieval times, eels were a common form of rent. They made up half of all fish in rivers. The Domesday survey even recorded more eel rents than corn rents.

The largest recorded rent was 75,000 eels paid to Earl Hugh of Chester. By the end of the 11th century, over 540,000 eels were paid as rent each year in England.

These eels were sent to various religious houses, including Crowland Abbey and Peterborough Cathedral. The Abbot of Ramsey even paid 4,000 eels each spring to Peterborough Abbey for stone from a quarry.

The name Ely is said to mean “island of eels.” Monks there traded eels for stone to build their cathedral.

All eels in Lincolnshire come from the Sargasso Sea, over 3,000 miles away. They breed in the depths of this sea, but no one has ever seen the breeding process.

For years, scientists searched for eels’ reproductive organs. They only develop just before spawning. Eels were once thought to come from mud, making them popular during Lent when meat was avoided.

Eel babies travel from the Sargasso Sea to UK waters, taking three years to arrive. They grow through different stages before returning to breed and die after living up to a decade in rivers.

Sadly, European eels are critically endangered, with numbers dropping by 95% since the 1980s.

In other news, a Victorian horse gag was featured in the Cabinet of Curiosities. It was used by vets for dental work on horses.

Book sales happen every first and third Saturday from 10 am to noon next to the museum. A new club for kids, History Hunters, meets every second Sunday at Ayscoughfee Hall. It’s free, but you need to sign up due to popularity.

The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society museum is closed for renovations, but you can see a changing exhibition at Ayscoughfee Hall.