Note 737 — Chapter XXI · DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROMAN AND MODERN PISCICULTURE
Reading edition
According to Magna Carta, c. 33, “all kydells [dams or weirs] for the future shall be removed altogether from the Thames and the Medway, and throughout all England, except on the sea-shore.”
It was for over 500 years held that this was a measure intended to safeguard the passage of fish, but W. S. McKechnie, Magna Carta (Glasgow, 1914.) pp. 303 ff., 343 ff., has shown that it aimed at removing hindrances to navigation, not to ascending fish.