Forms: 5–6 kiddell, 5, 7 kydle, 6 kydell, kedel(l, 6–7 kiddel, 7 kidle, (7–9 kettle, 8 kedle, 9 keddle), 6– kidel, kiddle. [a. AF. kidel, kydel (whence med.(Anglo-)L. kidellus), OF. quidel (1289 in Godef., Compl.), later quideau ‘a Wicker Engine whereby fish is caught’ (Cotgr.), also guidel (1322 in Godef.), mod.F. guideau, a stake-net, also, a line of sloping planks placed to direct a current; Breton kidel stake-net (Le Gonidec).]
a. A dam, weir or barrier in a river, having an opening in it fitted with nets or other appliances for catching fish. b. An arrangement of stake-nets on the sea-beach for the same purpose (see quot. 1891).
The word is chiefly found in some early statutes (Latin and Anglo-French) and in later references to these: there is no clear evidence that it was actually current in sense a later than c. 1550.
[1215. Magna Carta, xxxiii. in Stubbs, Sel. Charters (1895), 300. Omnes kydelli de cetero deponantur penitus de Thamisia, et de Medewaye, et per totam Angliam, nisi per costeram maris.
1275. in Bundello Escaet. de an. 3 Edw. 1. (Du Cange). Et fuit seisitus de uno Kidello vocato a were, ac de libera piscaria in Potlok.
1350. Act 25 Edw. III., stat. 4. c. 4. Gortz molins estanks Estackes & kideux.
1393. Act 1 Rich. II., c. 9 § 1. Touz les Kydels en les ewes de Tamise.]
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., v. in Ashm. (1652), 71. Fishes love Soote smell, also it is trewe, Thei love not old Kydles as thei doe the new.
1529. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 25. Weirs and kedells erect made or inhaunced within any of the said streams.
1556. Chron. Grey Friars (Camden), 10. Alle the kydelles and trungkes thorowghout the Temse.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. v. (1739), 26. The Lord Admiral gained the same within the low-water mark … and in all places where Kiddels were set.
1670. Blount, Law Dict., Kiddle, Kidel, or Kedel.… Some Fishermen corruptly call them Kettles.
1724. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., III. 233. An act for demolishing and removing Fishing Dams, Wears and Kedles set across the river Schuykill, was read.
1891. Ld. Herschell, in Law Times Rep., LXV. 566/1. A kiddle consists of a series of stakes forced into the ground occupying some 700 feet in length, with a similar row approaching them at an angle. The stakes are connected by network, and at the angle, where the two rows approach, a large net or bag is placed for the purpose of catching the fish.
c. attrib. and Comb., as kiddle-ground, -net.
1629. in Boys, Sandwich (1792), 749. Certain kidel grounds … where nets do use to hang upon poles … set in the sands above the low water mark to catch fish.
1741. T. Robinson, Gavelkind, II. ix. 274. For the Use of their Kidel-Nets.
1880. Buckland, Fishes, 132 (E. D. D.). The mackerel here [at Rye] are caught in large fixed nets called kettle-nets.
1889. Fishing Gaz., 31 Aug., 126 (ibid.). The stake nets … locally [in Kent] called ‘keddle’ nets.
