The Fish Stones

In the little village of Caton, part of the Lune Valley in Lancashire, you can find a strange set of three sandstone steps that form something known as The Fish Stones. This is something we have only heard of in this context and as soon as we saw them on the map, we knew we had to visit for Fabulous North.

While they look a little incongruous today as they stand next to the stream that runs through the village just outside the local pub, their original purpose was closely tied to the nearby Cockersand Abbey. During the medieval period, the monks of Cockersand Abbey would have held fishing rights on the River Lune, and the Fish Stones provided a convenient location for them to display and sell their catch, primarily salmon, to the local community.

Like all rivers, the River Lune was a valuable resource for the local population, and fish would have been an important food source. The Fish Stones would have been an important focal point of village life bringing people together from all around to trade, benefiting the local economy and community, as well as the monks.

The tiered design of the Fish Stones would have been to help display the fish in an organised way, rather than in a big pile, giving any customers a better view of the selection on offer. The use of sandstone for the steps would have been more about what materials they had locally to build with. Call it an early form of sustainable produce, caught locally and displayed on local stone!

One of the other important and prominent features of the Fish Stones was an ancient oak tree, known as the Caton Oak or Druid's Oak by some, that grew out of the stones. While it is was undoubtably an ancient tree, the story that it dated back to the time of the Druids, before the Romans arrived, is perhaps unlikely.

Sadly, time began to get the better of the oak tree and it began to decline and became dangerous. Villagers and the Parish Council tried their best to preserve it by installing a support to keep it upright but unfortunately by 2007 the trunk was hollow with decay. An acorn from the original oak was planted in the hollow by the High Sheriff of Lancashire, Ruthe Winterbottom, with the hope that a new tree would grow from the old one. The original Caton Oak fell on 20th June 2016 but the new tree survives and will hopefully be there for a few more hundred years.

While there is only rumours of a link to Druids, the name Caton is believed to come from the Norse "Kati" meaning "cheerful" and "ton" signifying a village, hamlet, or farm. This potential Norse influence likely comes from nearby Viking settlements in the region.

The Fish Stones are a Grade II listed building and remain an important part of the history of Caton, despite their small size.