putcher local.
(ˈpʌtʃə(r))
Also putcheon.
[The same as putchen, -eon, -in, recorded in the Eng. Dial. Dict. from Shropsh., Worcester, Warwick, Gloucestersh., in sense ‘eel-basket, wicker eel-trap’. Origin unknown. Cf. putt n.2]
A conical basket or wicker trap for catching salmon (see quot. 1885).
| 1873 Act 36 & 37 Vic. c. 71 §21 (1) Licenses for fishing weirs, fishing mill dams, putts, putchers, fixed nets, and other fixed instruments or devices. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 51 Models of Salmon Nets..Weirs with fish-passes..Putchers, [etc.]. 1884 Daily News 1 Sept. 6/7 In the [Severn] estuary large hauls were made with the nets and putchers in July and August. 1885 Daily Tel. 18 Aug., Putchers..are funnel-shaped baskets of wicker-work set at right angles to the shore, into which the salmon press themselves in trying to press through, and are unable to return. 1898 Birmingham Daily Post 16 Dec. 8/6 Heavy catches of eels in ‘putcheons’. 1945 J. Moore Portrait of Elmbury iv. 147 Jim also earned {pstlg}4 by selling eel-putcheons which he'd made out of withies. 1968 J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 258 Salmon traps, putchers or putcheons, are quite different in structure. Ibid. 260 The putcheons are arranged in a stout, permanent framework, forming a ‘barrage’ extending for scores of yards across the Severn grounds. |