A 'heraldic' fish - failing to find the Barbel

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A 'HERALDIC' FISH - FAILING TO FIND THE BÄRBEL G. D. H E A T H C O T E I have an interest in heraldry, as has our previous President, F. J. Bingley, a recognised authority on animals in heraldry. I have also since moving to Suffolk been making rubbings of memorial brasses in our churches and, of course, I have an interest in natural history. These subjects can overlap and readers might be interested in a recent study of mine. It started when I published some notes on fish in heraldry in the Blazon, the journal and newsletter of the Suffolk Heraldry Society (Heathcote, 1991, '92). These notes caught the eye of Mr John Bensusan-Butt who sent me copies of two Continental brasses showing the Bärbel (Barbus barbus), a m e m b e r of the carp family, the Cyprinidae. O n e is to Hinrich Urbech of Nordhausen in G e r m a n y , who died in 1397 (Fig. 1). This shows his shield bearing two Bärbels, and also his helmet with two Bärbels as its crest. T h e other is a memorial to Martin de Visch, Lord of Capelle, in the cathedral at Bruges. He died in 1452. I Iis shield bears two Bärbels (together with crosses of the type known as 'cross crosslet fitched') and these are shown on the surcoat he wears over his a r m o u r , but not as his crest (Fig. 2). These are what is known as 'canting arms', which pun or play on the name of the bearer. T h e G e r m a n for fish is 'fisch'. These illustrations came from the Rev. W. F. Greeny's 'Monumental Brasses on the Continent of E u r o p e ' (1884). The Bärbels on the de Visch brass were attractively drawn but show the barbules (fleshy appendages round the mouth from which the fish gets its name) as rounded and fin-like rather than thin and pointed as in reality. Mr Bensusan-Butt also lent me a rare book by T h o m a s Moule, 'Heraldry of Fish' (1842) in which it says: 'The Bärbel is a large, strong and handsome fish . . . abundant in the Rhine, Elbe and Wasser.' I wonder if it is found there today? Knowing nothing of the Bärbel (and little about fish in general) I approached Eric Parsons, our Fish Recorder for Suffolk, to see if the Bärbel has ever been caught in Suffolk waters. H e reported that Dr. Dudley Collings, who was then our President and also County Fish Recorder, published a comprehensive survey of Suffolk fishes and their histories (Collings, 1933) but did not mention the Bärbel. H e also spoke to Mr George H o w a r d of the Suffolk County Amalgamated Angling Association in pursuit of contemporary records, and got in touch with Mr Fred Crouch of the Association of Bärbel Enthusiasts, who supplied many details of the fish's life history. T h e Bärbel is an indigenous species to Britain. It was originally found in the G r e a t Ouse, the Trent and the Thames, and it is the fish of the Hampshire A v o n . At the turn of the Century some of these fish were transported to other rivers, in some of which it thrives. Dr. J. S. Wortley, who is Fisheries Recreation and Conservation Officer of the R N A , commented that although there are good records of its introduction during the 1950s and 1960s into Norfolk there are no records of similar movements to Suffolk. In Order to spawn the Bärbel requires a river with relatively constant temperature, which is well aerated, and a gravel bed in open water. There are

Trans. Suffolk

Nat. Soc. 29 (1993)

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A 'heraldic' fish - failing to find the Barbel by Suffolk Naturalists' Society - Issuu