 European beaver were hunted to extinction in Britain for their many attributes: their valuable fur, meat, body oils and castoreum.
Their flesh was considered to be fish by the Catholic Church rendering it suitable fare for fast days, while their soft under fur was harvested for fashionable waterproof felt hats.
Castoreum contained in the Beaver’s castor glands was however the most valuable commodity. Castoreum is a clear, viscous fluid which dries to the consistency of Demerara sugar. It is used by the beavers to mark territorial features such as earth piles, bank side promontories or trees. As a result of its high salicylin (aspirin) content which is derived from the willow bark consumed by the beaver, it was used medicinally in medieval times to cure earache, constipation, toothache sores and ulcers. The secretion from one beaver gland was worth a farm-hand’s annual wage and it is likely that Beverstone castle is probably so called as a result of its being a historic trading centre.
This historic pattern of over exploitation was repeated throughout Europe. By the 16th century European beavers were largely extinct and North American pelts were beginning to enter the British fur market. In Bolton Percy near York beginning in 1566 as an Act for the Preservation of Grayne, a system of bounty payments were paid by Parish Constables for the presentation to them of the heads of a group of wild mammal and bird species decreed to be vermin. Beavers were one such species and in the church wardens account of 1789 two pence was recorded as being paid for ‘a beaver head’.
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