Monument record 830/3/4 - Rookery Pool, Vale Royal Abbey

A group of three rectangular fishponds linked by a stream can be seen as earthworks. They lie partly in a field and partly in a wood, below Rookery Pool and a breached dam. They are shown on early estate map of Vale Royal as water-filled pools. They may have originally been the Abbey fishponds. Fishponds were often part of large estates or monasteries in medieval times. Fish was an important part of the diet for the rich, particularly for those in religious houses where abstinence from meat was frequently required.