Pea-shooters came with the arrival of Burbage Wake, Oak Apple Day, mushrooming, birds-nesting, kite flying, fishing, all these pastimes would come around as surely as night followed day. For a few of us, fishing was the game we were hooked on. We knew every brook and pond for miles around, Soar Brook, Sam Paynes Pit, Fosters Pond, Smocky Hollow, Sketchley, Burbage Common and much later, when we graduated to rod and line, the Ashby Canal.

We brought home with us sticklebacks, red-breasts, bullheads, most of which died before we got there. The survivors rarely made it over the next few days. We were quite happy and contented with these tiddlers until the day when the "Big-Fish" arrived in the village. The 'Rector' of Burbage at that time was the Rev. Richard Pugh. His Rectory was where Moat House now stands, between New Rd. and the 'Hoss-Pool' jetty.

The Reverend had either a relative or a friend at that time whose hobby was game-fishing in the North Sea. This was when there were Tunny-fish (now called tuna) in those waters. This gentleman caught one of these monsters on rod and line and for some reason sent it to the Reverend Pugh at the Rectory in Burbage! Don't ask me why, I've no idea. In any case what can you do with about ten feet of game fish?

Elson's Chip shop turned it down because it was too big to go into the fryer! Some one had the bright idea of putting it on show for the church funds at a few pence a look. I'll never forget the sight of this giant of the deep, shining with colours of electric blue and silver lying on the grass in the Rectory grounds. I gladly paid my half-penny and after more than seventy years I can still remember it was pocket money well spent.

After a few days of hot summer sun, 'Tunny' was making his presence known! Cats journeyed from as far a field as Sapcote and High-Cross! Birds fell from the trees! "Tunny" had to go! But how do you get rid of a few hundred weight of rapidly passing its sell-by-date of prime fish?

The problem was eventually solved by the late Mr Jack Jones who lived in the Rectory Cottage and a neighbour, Mr Fred Simpson, who had the unenviable task of sawing the monster into three or four pieces with a cross cut timber saw! Then, digging a great pit and burying it in the Rectory Gardens.

Can you imagine the equivalent of 'Time-Team' in a few hundred years time searching for the remains of Burbage Rectory, coming across the dismembered skeleton of a giant fish! That would really have Tony Robinson scampering around! As an aftermath of this fishy tale, the Reverend Pugh some time later had a greenhouse built upon the site and the first year grew tomatoes as big as footballs! This was, I believe, the last Tunny-Fish to be caught in the North Sea, and it could not have ended its days in a better place.

Submitted by Tankpark
Location: Burbage, Leicestershire.