The Abbot's Fish House
The Abbot's Fish House at Meare is one of the most remarkable and rare surviving medieval buildings in Somerset, and indeed in all of England. It stands as the only remaining purpose-built medieval fish house in the country, a distinction that elevates this modest stone structure to a site of extraordinary historical significance. Built in the fourteenth century, it served the abbots of Glastonbury Abbey as a facility for processing and storing fish caught from the nearby Meare Pool, a large artificial lake or managed mere that once stretched across this part of the Somerset Levels. The building's survival in relatively good condition, despite centuries of agricultural use and the draining of the landscape around it, makes it a genuinely precious remnant of medieval monastic industry.
The Fish House was constructed around 1330, during the period when Glastonbury Abbey was one of the wealthiest and most powerful monastic establishments in England. Meare itself was an important satellite property of the Abbey, and the abbot maintained a manor house nearby — also still partially standing — which served as a country residence. Fish was an essential dietary staple for the monks, particularly during the many days of religious abstinence from meat, and the managed fisheries of the Somerset Levels were a critical source of supply. The Meare Pool was a carefully maintained resource, reportedly stocked with bream, pike, tench and roach, and the Fish House served as the operational hub of this enterprise, housing the fisherman who managed the pool as well as providing space for salting, smoking, and storing the catch.
The building itself is a compact, solid structure of local blue lias limestone, rectangular in plan and two storeys in height. The upper floor would have provided living quarters for the keeper of the fishery, while the ground floor served as the working area for processing and storing fish. The building retains a number of original features including medieval window openings and the sturdy rubble-stone walls that give it a robustly utilitarian character. It is roofed in later materials but the basic medieval fabric is well preserved. Standing before it, the structure has an austere, workmanlike quality entirely appropriate to its function — there is none of the decorative ambition of a church or great hall, only the honest solidity of a building designed to do a particular job.
The setting of the Fish House is deeply evocative and somewhat melancholy in its beauty. It sits in the flat, wide-open countryside of the Somerset Levels, surrounded by water meadows, rhynes (the local name for drainage ditches), and grazing land. The great mere that once dominated this landscape was drained over the centuries following the Dissolution, and today the land is agricultural, crisscrossed by the characteristic straight water channels of this reclaimed wetland. On clear days, the distinctive outline of Glastonbury Tor is visible on the horizon to the east, reinforcing the sense that this building is part of a broader landscape shaped by the ambitions and industry of Glastonbury Abbey. The village of Meare itself is small and quiet, with a church and the ruins of the abbot's manor adding to the sense of a place with layers of medieval history just below the surface.
The Fish House is managed by English Heritage and is accessible to the public, though it is a relatively simple site without an on-site visitor centre or staffed facilities. It is listed as a Grade I listed building and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Access is free, and the exterior and surrounding area can be viewed at any time, while access to the interior may be more limited depending on current arrangements. The site is best visited in combination with the nearby Abbot's Manor and the Church of St Mary and St John in Meare village, which together form a coherent picture of this estate's medieval past.
Getting to Meare requires a car for most visitors, as public transport connections are limited. The village lies on the B3151 road between Glastonbury and Wedmore, and there is roadside parking available near the site. The Fish House sits slightly outside the main village, near the edge of the former mere. The surrounding flatness of the Levels means it can be exposed and windswept in winter, but it is accessible year-round. Spring and autumn are particularly atmospheric times to visit, when low mist sometimes lingers over the rhynes and the wide skies take on dramatic character.
One of the more fascinating aspects of the Fish House is what it reveals about the medieval monastic economy. Glastonbury Abbey was not merely a spiritual institution but a vast landholding enterprise that managed fisheries, farms, mills, and markets across Somerset. The investment in a purpose-built, two-storey stone building for a fisherman and fish store speaks to how seriously the abbey took its food supply operations. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, the building lost its original purpose but survived — perhaps because its sturdy construction made it useful as a farm outbuilding. That survival, through nearly five centuries of changed use and altered landscape, is itself a small miracle of English heritage.