INTRODUCTION

The history of sea fishing and of marine fish consumption in medieval England can be broadly divided into two phases. Before c. 1000 AD consumption of sea fish appears to have been largely restricted to coastal communities, to elite groups with access to coastal resources, and to a few urban or proto-urban communities. After the turn of the millennium, marine fish consumption increased markedly in the growing urban sector of the population, while retaining its importance in aristocratic and ecclesiastical diets, extending to communities inland which had no direct links with fishing, and even appearing as an element of consumption among some rural peasant communities. These changes in the scale and geographical and social penetration of fish consumption were associated with changes in the organisation of sea and coastal fishing, the exploitation of deeper waters, and the rise of a major trade in preserved fish. However, coastal fishing, using fixed fishing weirs and traps as well as nets and small boats, continued to be important throughout the medieval period and beyond. Fishing further offshore (and eventually in much deeper and more remote waters) at first supplemented and then greatly augmented coastal and estuarine fishing, but never replaced it.