Searching for the real d'eel
May Day celebrations with a fishy twist in Ely, Cambridgeshire
May is proving to be as short-lived as its namesake fly. I'm sure it wasn't four weekends ago I was enjoying May Day celebrations with a fishy twist in Cambridgeshire but my calendar says otherwise.
If you're not familiar with the city of Ely, it's only a little one. Sitting on the highest point in the midst of the flat Fens, its name belies its most famous species - the European eel. In medieval times, you could pay your rent in eels and since 2004 the city has had an annual Ely Eel Day to celebrate the slippery subjects.
I've heard a lot about it, and I'm a sucker for a good old-fashioned country fair having grown up in a village that can trace its own back 700 years. With friends in Cambs, it was high time I got to grips with Eel Day.
It seems you have to get up quite early in the morning to catch the parading variety of eel and unfortunately, it slipped right past us. Still, we enjoyed sitting under the shade of the willows by the River Great Ouse watching some spirited morris dancing before catching the tail end of the eel throwing contest at Jubilee Gardens. The toy eels used for the contest are quite well fed, though not as monstrous in proportions as either the statue or mosaic that adorn the gardens.
A spot of eel fishing and its history
Ely Museum had some great relics of the city's eel-hunting past on display including some woven traps or 'grigs' and savage-looking forks called 'greaves'. The kids also enjoyed their magnet fishing game and posing with some stuffed toys that were a little more realistic, at least in size. I wondered what the chances of us seeing a real eel were, having encountered them carved into flagstones, etched into windows and jellied into fudge (don't worry, they were just sweets!)
As we prepared to leave for the day we took one last sweep around the stalls and to my delight there was a tank full of writhing, real eels courtesy of the Environment Agency. I found out that these curious fish are actually doing quite well locally again, with good numbers recorded in the river in recent years.
The serpentine grey shapes spooling through the weeds in the tank were mesmerising. It's heartening to know a community are celebrating their existence and boosting their conservation.