1666, April 21: Pasture Field Covered with Fish at Cranstead, England

On April 21, 1666, the Wednesday before Easter, a two acre pasture field at Cranstead near Wortham in Kent, England, was found covered with little fishes, about the size of a man's pinky finger. The area is far from the sea or any river, has no fish ponds, and is a dry area... and yet it was covered by fish, believed to be young Whitings.

        There had been a "great tempest of thunder and rain," and so it was supposed that the fish had been delivered by the rain, though it wasn't seen to happen. The field belonged to a young yeoman named Ware, who showed some of the fish off at Maidstone, in Kent, over the Easter holiday. Mr. Lake, who saw the fish on this occasion, later brought one of the fishes to London. Many of the fish were gathered up and displayed to various people, and the truth of their being found in Ware's field alone (they were in no one else's field) was sworn by many people who initially saw the fishes in the field. Overall, it was estimated that about a bushel (around 8 gallons) of fish were gathered from the field.