Mitchell mania...

Iv'e always had a soft spot for the dinky Mitchell 304 - there is something about it that I find most appealing. The look I guess. The round body, satisfying clunk of the bail arm, the tick of the ratchet and many more. There were not many variations over the years - a small change here and there.....for those who need to satisfy their thirst I can only direct you to the Mitchell Reel Museum where you should find all you need. 

I have fished with them everywhere and for everything. My friend Pete and I had a rule one season where we would only use 304's - we caught our first River Wye barbel (pioneering days) using them in the late 1980's early 1990's and even used them at Redmire Pool. If I see one on my travels I just can't resist them!   

A years turning...

I can't believe we are well and truly into another coarse fishing season - to celebrate this I thought I would post some buried treasure and ephemera that sometimes turns up or makes itself known from some dark corner of the tackle shed.

Woolworths or Woolies was a regular haunt for me, the child angler. I would spend an age in the fishing isle with pocket money burning a hole in my trousers - floats, hooks, bait boxes, reels and brightly coloured reel pouches all spring to mind. Here are some size 10 hooks to nylon - river hook pack no less!

Market Finds No 25

The wonderful world of Winfield...a magnificent market find which was tucked away out of sight. Just waiting to be put back into service with half a pint of white gentles, a few reds and a generous sprinkling of curry powder. Change from a pound for this childhood memory - I had quite a lot of Winfield tackle as a nipper.

Buried Treasure from a lost tackle shop

Make your own tackle?

Newnes Practical Mechanics, September 1954 - Home-Made Fishing Tackle

Fishing with Mr Cherry and Jim....and Tim

Friday Faces

A few Faces for Friday, for your edification.......these from the most wonderful wooden panelling which once stood in the lost village of Tyneham near the Purbeck coast in Dorset.

Lay Down Thy Raincoat And Groove

I was amazed to find these gems of ephemera in the treasure trove that is more commonly known as our attic.

Amazed to find them, amazed they had survived and amazed to realise it was 34 years ago that The Bunnymen had played at The Royal Albert Hall for two consecutive nights in July 1983.

Aged 14 I was already aware of The Bunnymen – I had been a fan for a few years already as I started my exploration of post punk and found their music to my liking. I loved exploration, I loved field trips, archipelagos, fishing, poking around on beaches, old stuff and I dressed in camouflage……they seemed to like most of this too. It was a match made in heaven.

I can categorically say that I was the only one at our rural school who liked them – I got the school bus driver to turn up the volume as high as he dared when The Back of Love came on the radio and I got shouted at by everyone for doing so………I did the same for Tiny Children by The Teardrops knowing full well the girls liked it and they would like me too for sorting it out.

Aged 13 I had already seen The Bunnymen live. My first outing was to the wonderful WOMAD Festival in July 1982 to see them perform in the Showering Pavilion at Shepton Mallet. I remember the whole experience as being a mind blowing extravaganza on my young senses. My brother and I, after purchasing the remaining two tickets left at the gates, had literally £1 left to last us the day. This was a bummer when there were new experiences to enjoy and a huge Zoo Records merchandise stall that had delights a schoolboy could only dream of.

Later, when I had sufficient funds to purchase a Postal Order, I sent a few quid to Bunnymen HQ for some of the items I had spotted on the Zoo stall and that is when the fun started – I soon realised these guys were OK and they knew what it meant to be a teenage fan. Not many bands have had such a rapport with their young followers – I got the impression after talking to Mick Jones of The Clash when my best mate Overend Watts introduced me to him at one of the Hammersmith reunion shows that they (Mott The Hoople) had exactly the same rapport. Sneaking young fans in, giving them goodies and generally looking after them.

The Bunnymen did this – my PO was soon returned by that amazing and lovely chap Jake Brockman with a pile of freebies and asking my brother and I to make ourselves known at future gigs…….the rest is history and Jake, Will, Les and Pete were a joy to be around.

I digress….this was meant to be about the “buried treasure” find of the Albert Hall ephemera…..needless to say I was at both gigs and as was the norm at that time school was totally forgotten about and two days in London sleeping in my brothers old Renault 5 car and record buying were the order of the day. We had a ball.

The gigs to this day are still up there in my Top Ten – any gig that starts with dry ice and Mendelsshons Fingal's Cave is going to be a classic. I liked that overture then as much as I do now. The first night saw the gig being halted as panic ravaged RAH staff tried to stop the surge and get fans off the carefully laid out chairs in the hall. It was chaos and I loved it. My older brother, looking after his 14 year old younger brother, lost me and we eventually found each other at the end………and did it all again the following night.

A few years later I remember telling my friend Overend about it – his reply, “that’s nothing new Son, we did all that in July 1971 at theAlbert Hall and we got all rock gigs banned there, sort of makes the fans freakout a bit that place”……I think he’s right, but it remains a special memory and I feel somewhat freaked out myself that it was 34 years ago today.

A Shell Eye on England

John Leigh-Pemberton 1958

John Leigh-Pemberton 1958

Trees be company

The Dorset magician wordsmith William Barnes was right - his poem of the same title is well worth a read before you proceed.

It never ceases to amaze me how such items of ephemera survive in this modern world of instant, throw it away and want it now. I am glad it does survive - these items, mere trifles, were saved from the rubbish bin. I have a vague recollection of playing the card game as a child - the pack is dated 1975 with artwork by Althea Braithwaite. Done at a time when the National Trust actually printed good guides / ephemera (Rena Gardiner) and didn't rip you off for a pot of tea and a slice of cake like they do now. 

The Tree Card Game has the most delightful box - so imaginative, with every bit of available space illustrated with leaves, berries and birds.

The booklets are Nature Conservancy Council (1978) and Forestry Commission (1973) and are full of interesting facts and advice......from a gentler time. A time I think some of us really crave these days?

Rogers & Strong

To say I was chuffed to bits with these two beauties is an understatement. Found whilst walking ankle deep in a Purbeck Stream after trout they will soon be cleaned and displayed in the shed.

I don't know a great deal about either - Rogers of Bristol (the larger of the two) is from the old brewery of Old Market in the city. Strong's of Romsey and Wareham is equally intriguing. I know of the old brewery in Romsey but did not realise they had a brewery in Wareham - more research required.

Rogers and Strong has a good feel about it - much like Flanders and Swann, Monk and Canatella and Flanagan and Allen don't you think? Yet again I will get my coat.

Market Finds No 24

You will return one more to the bank of lake and river- who can resist a market find such as this? Less than the price of a Dorset pint and this reel, I would imagine, has a tale or two to tell. A bit of TLC in the Straker Tackle Shed and it will be purring once more!  

The Gorwell Circle

Like a Neolithic Bloomsbury group, this magical circle of stones stand high up on the chalk ridge west of Portesham. They still command great glimpses of the sea and Golden Cap to the west. Even though they are all fallen they are still a sight of true calm and beauty.

I think so, although the nippers cried "not another pile of stones" as we walked the most pleasant of walks in perfect peace and quiet only buzzed by swallows and soundtracked by skylarks. Red Kites are now making more of a comeback in this part of Dorset - they are regulars on the slopes of Cranborne Chase to the north, but are still a sight that gets me excited down here on the Jurassic Coast - today we saw five different kites and all so close they even made the youngsters gasp.

It was the stones that shone today - there are 18 visible stones, not all visible and in the end even the nippers enjoyed a frolic and gambol by jumping, inspecting and generally larking about in the presence of such antiquity.  

There is even a grotesque Friday Face in here somewhere - who says history is boring?

Watch where you tread

There has been much movement on my local beaches and cliffs - this fragile coastline has treasures to find one day and they disappear the next. Some are taken by the fossil hunter and others are lost to the sea.

This delightful find was here one day and gone the next - to me it looks like a very old foot / shoe inprint. Maybe a Victorian fossil hunter left their own mark in the soft Jurassic clay? The shape and size of the mark is interesting - we were much smaller then and shoes constructed in two halves, who knows? Poking around on the beach is as old as these rocks.