SHRINKING ARCHIVE

How to make an eel basket

This was the first time I saw eels, back in August 2020 and have thought about it ever since.

I went to see the eels at the eel ramp which was created due to a damn. The eel ramp allows ecologists to study and monitor the eel population, their weight and length.

The eels found in the Fen are European eels, (Anguilla anguilla) and are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.

In the Fens there was a long tradition of capturing eels for food or sending them elsewhere for consumption, but this is a tradition that no longer cares on, especially key with them being an endangered species.

I visited SueKirk Willow Baskets in Kings Cliffe, and was taught how to make an eel basket. She made a series of sketches of how to make them and the different weaving techniques used.

eels

Must Farm Eel Basket

 Must Farm is an excavation site between Peterborough and Whittlesey, where archaeologists uncovered what is considered one of the best preserved settlements of the Late Bronze Age (1000 – 800BC).

One of the things discovered was the remains of eighteen fish traps, a fish weir and nine log boats. The fish traps are believed to be Eel traps on the basis of their design.

The baskets would have lasted around one season, with making happening in the Winter and catching eels happening in the Spring.

Basketmaker Sue Kirk was commissioned to create a replica of one of the fish traps using photographs and her knowledge of weaving. The finished result can be seen below, as you can it differs greatly from the more recently used eel traps.

picture of eel trap fragment from Must Farm excavations, on display in Flag Fen

lumen Print of my finished eel basket

It took me around a day and a half to finish the basket. The are variably known as eel grigs, hives, traps or baskets.
They are made of made of willow, that would often have been directly grown by the maker for the purpose of basket making

Learn More

Basketry 'Making Human Nature' Exhibition catalogue from Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 2011.

To learn more about the replica Must Farm basket, made by Sue Kirk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h16Z4ssNHOI

Richard Schweid, Eel, (2009)

Tom Fort, The Book of Eels, (2003)

Lumen print I made of my finished eel hive

drawings by Sue Kirk

Replica eel trap on display in Flag Fen

gifs of the Eels I saw