The Eel House - MM264, subject 'Pinch'

On my walk today down part of the Watercress Way I blipped the Eel House.  It's extremely rare to find one still standing.  This one has occasional open days, but the first of the year isn't until Easter Saturday.  I must try to go.

The website says:
'
On dark moonless nights between August and November of each year eels set off from the tributaries of Old Alresford Pond, travelling with the prevailing current down the Alre to the River Itchen, into the English Channel and then across the Atlantic Ocean. Their objective is to return to their spawning grounds to breed, deep in the salt waters of the Sargasso Sea, between the Bahamas and Bermuda.

The Eel House contains three water channels running through it. They were built to house the iron grills that were used to trap the eels. There is evidence that these were still in working use in the early 1980's. For more than one hundred and sixty years, on between six and eight dark autumnal nights of the year, the river keeper would arrive at The Eel House. Using a hurricane lamp for illumination he would open his sluices, set his traps and manoeuvre his catch into a boat shaped eel box. When the box was full he would tow it downstream to his keeper's cottage to await the arrival of merchants from as far away as Billingsgate in London who took the eels away in tanks to be sold, while still alive, at fish markets.

As you can see if you look carefully (or in large) there are three arches under the building.  They act as pinch points, funnelling the water and trapping the eels.  (Well, they don't any more, but they did!)

So this is my entry for today's MonoMonday, kindly hosted by Laurie54.  Happy Monday evening all  xx