- Joined
- Nov 16, 2020
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I’ve made it plain that I relish working with Thomas Turner for the way vintage tackle is a tangible link to our angling heritage. Days spent fishing are, and always have been, the best days of any angler’s life, and whilst the man or woman might have gone, their tackle sometimes remains, a poignant reminder to enjoy the bank whilst you may. Just writing this sentence has induced me to get up from my desk and handle again an original Hardy Conquest centrepin and wonder who owned it, where it might have been employed, and what Red Letter days it might have witnessed. I’ve just vowed that if the Wye remains low and if temperatures rise, I’ll trot with that reel again for grayling for sure, but perhaps, whisper it, for a late winter barbel. Why not give that once-beloved treasure more days in the sun?
But I’m going further back still now, back to another Conquest, that of Britain in the time of the Romans. I, along with some of my gang, have been riveted by the fact that we are fishing around the site of a Roman wharf here on the Wye. I spent time in the area last evening looking for any evidence and I remembered an event in 1962, one summer, when I was brought by my parents for a fishing holiday, staying upriver at The Red Lion. Like any kid, come mid-afternoon when attention begins to waver, I was wading around the shallows that I still fish to this day. Kicking amongst the rocks and stones, I grubbed up a coin I instantly knew to be Roman. Serious little lad that I was, I already owned a burgeoning coin collection and knew a second century example when I saw one.
That coin, long since lost, should have prepared me for news of that Roman wharf on the river there, but my memory needed jogging. Now I’m alive to the whole fascinating story and piecing together the mosaic of clues. The Roman town of Kenchester was established only a few miles to the north of here. Look at the maps and you’ll see roads labelled still as being Roman, and I have recently learned that the place name Portway has ancient significance. I’ve spent the morning looking through archaeological records of the area and my excitement grows... why, shards of Roman pottery were found outside my very house in 1972.
Does any of this matter, you are entitled to ask, and indeed it was a question I was haunted by many times in a long teaching career. I obviously think it does, because stories like this give an added dimension to our fishing. Do you call “our fishing” a sport, a hobby, a pastime, or something more? Doesn’t it become a way of life, an activity that engages us on every level imaginable? Natural history. Endless skill sets. Entomology. Bait and rig science. Conservation. Pure adrenalin. Poetry. Companionship. And they are simply ingredients arising from half a minute’s consideration. Archaeology is now on my list of angling’s fascinations. What about yours?
But I’m going further back still now, back to another Conquest, that of Britain in the time of the Romans. I, along with some of my gang, have been riveted by the fact that we are fishing around the site of a Roman wharf here on the Wye. I spent time in the area last evening looking for any evidence and I remembered an event in 1962, one summer, when I was brought by my parents for a fishing holiday, staying upriver at The Red Lion. Like any kid, come mid-afternoon when attention begins to waver, I was wading around the shallows that I still fish to this day. Kicking amongst the rocks and stones, I grubbed up a coin I instantly knew to be Roman. Serious little lad that I was, I already owned a burgeoning coin collection and knew a second century example when I saw one.
That coin, long since lost, should have prepared me for news of that Roman wharf on the river there, but my memory needed jogging. Now I’m alive to the whole fascinating story and piecing together the mosaic of clues. The Roman town of Kenchester was established only a few miles to the north of here. Look at the maps and you’ll see roads labelled still as being Roman, and I have recently learned that the place name Portway has ancient significance. I’ve spent the morning looking through archaeological records of the area and my excitement grows... why, shards of Roman pottery were found outside my very house in 1972.
Does any of this matter, you are entitled to ask, and indeed it was a question I was haunted by many times in a long teaching career. I obviously think it does, because stories like this give an added dimension to our fishing. Do you call “our fishing” a sport, a hobby, a pastime, or something more? Doesn’t it become a way of life, an activity that engages us on every level imaginable? Natural history. Endless skill sets. Entomology. Bait and rig science. Conservation. Pure adrenalin. Poetry. Companionship. And they are simply ingredients arising from half a minute’s consideration. Archaeology is now on my list of angling’s fascinations. What about yours?