KAC the Early Years

Kilnsey Angling Club The Early Years J M Hodgson 2012 This book is number of a limited edition of 150 copies ISBN: 978-0-9573055-0-2 Published 2012 by J M Hodgson Coneydale Welwyn Garden City, AL8 7RZ © Copyright 2012 Kilnsey Angling Club Designed, typeset, printed and bound in Great Britain by Orphans Press Ltd., Leominster Plus ça change… Kilnsey is the head quarters of one of the most famous northern angling clubs, and here since its foundation in 1840, a long line of anglers, good, bad and indifferent, have found recreation and renewed vigour in the free mountain breezes and the fresh pastoral scenery, as a pleasant foil to the worry of town life. T. E. Pritt. Around Settle: A Holiday Book. 1888. The traditions, tales, legends and anecdotes of the long line of Kilnsey anglers would fll a large volume. Someday, perhaps when somebody has time, they may see the light. Meantime, it is enough for the public to know that the fshing is closed to all but members or their friends, or strangers with big pockets who do not mind paying prohibitive prices. T. E. Pritt. The Yorkshire Weekly Post. June 1885. Preface Established in 1840, Kilnsey Angling Club is amongst the earliest in the country and one of a very few that have survived from the early nineteenth century keeping its traditions intact. The club’s waters in their beautiful surroundings with their excellent fshing are nationally famous and over the years have been host to many well-known anglers. The club’s headquarters since its inception have been the Tennant Arms. In the 1980s it was mooted that the club, then soon to be 150 years old, should compile a short account of its history as befts one of the oldest angling clubs in Yorkshire and England. For various reasons this project did not get off the ground and the initiative was lost. In 2005 members who had seen and enthused about the early club records drew my attention to them. Subsequently Edward Wood, our present secretary, very kindly let me borrow them on “extended loan”. Though incomplete, they provide a challenging, frustrating but fascinating account of the early days. Gaps in the story have stimulated a wider search and consequently these have been flled, at least partly, by material from very varied sources. The club archives for the years before 1975 comprise: 1. A leather-bound Visitors’ Book which was used from 1846 to 1881 to record members’ guests and monies received at the Tennant Arms; 2. A leather-bound Minute Book used from 1874 to 1918 which includes the annual accounts from 1874 to 1896; 3. Two small parchment-bound bank books recording transactions from 1904 to 1926; 4. Two treasurer’s pocket books with the accounts from 1914 to 1950; 5. A half-bound Minute Book for 1919 to 1975; 6. A leather-bound log book, giving catch returns from 1884 to 1894 (presented to KAC by T. E. Pritt); 7. A list of members in 1859. The club is fortunate that these annals are augmented by the writings of several esteemed angling authors who were Kilnsey members, notably T. E. Pritt, a Leeds bank manager, who was also angling correspondent of the Yorkshire Weekly Post in the late 1880s and 1890s. Pritt wrote a now classic book describing traditional Yorkshire fy patterns. This, with Pritt’s other two books, and that of his friend and fellow member, Henry Cadman, provide a unique record of late nineteenth century trout fshing in the Yorkshire Dales. Cadman’s detailed accounts of the social life and angling methods at Kilnsey may seem tedious to the general reader but they are fascinating to anyone who fshes there today. I have drawn to some extent on Cadman’s and Pritt’s work but have tried to avoid undue repetition of their material. Fortunately modern facsimile editions of both Pritt (1995) and Cadman (1990) have been published, making these once scarce books more widely available. They should be read with what is written here. Other author-members include Alfred H. Illingworth, the inventor of the eponymous casting reels, who wrote two volumes of reminiscences, and Colonel W. K. Rollo, who some years later wrote a best-seller, ‘The Art of Fly Fishing’, which introduced many anglers to the sport between the world wars. As well as their books these writers contributed divers articles and letters to angling journals and the press, some of which have provided tit-bits of information on the club. Acknowledgements Research for this account was made easier than it would otherwise have been by the publication eighteen-years ago of Leslie Magee’s book Fly Fishing - the North Country Tradition (1994). This detailed study gives a valuable overview of fy fshing in Yorkshire and provides a useful background for readers of the present text. Magee deals at length (over thirty pages) and in great depth with Kilnsey Angling Club’s most famous member, T. E. Pritt, making a further detailed description of Pritt’s life unnecessary here. Much of my relatively short treatment of Pritt is based on Magee’s book. I am very grateful to Mrs Louise Smith for kindly lending me the Reverend William Bury’s scrapbook, which has provided invaluable insight into his life and times. Keith Mallinson provided details of his family and family legends. The discovery of the diaries (1847-1873) of John Robert Tennant in the archives of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society has helped to fll out aspects of the earliest years. I greatly appreciate the encouragement and interest of the club committee, and my fellow members and friends. In particular a special thank you to John Nesbitt who, though he may not know it, stimulated my enthusiasm for the project in its early stages. I am grateful to Julie Dover who, using an impression from the club’s embossed stamp, skilfully drew the fne interpretation of our ‘logo’ that illustrates the title page and the dust jacket. Richard Dover provided the photograph for Figure 14 and edited several of the illustrations. I am indebted also to Peter Loss for help with other illustrations. Mr and Mrs M. Campbell kindly gave access to their extensive collection of early photographs from which I reproduce Figures 7, 9 & 10. It is a pleasure to thank John Austin for so kindly exchanging information. He has generously shared sources which were special to him but unknown to me. David Holdsworth has given permission to publish a photograph from his family archives (Fig.12). A warm thank you to Tony Hayter who searched through Halford’s fshing diary and helpfully provided copies of the pages giving details of Refftt’s visit to the river Test. David Beazley provided information about the early years of the Flyfshers’ Club. Sonia Wilkinson exchanged information and kept me up to date about her research into parish history. Finally, Laurence Catlow painstakingly read through the penultimate draft exposing a variety of errors and, in so doing, not only saved me from embarrassment but also offered sound advice. Contents List of Illustrations Chapter I Introduction 1 Chapter II The early years 7 Chapter III The keepers and their duties 13 Chapter IV Fishing methods in the early years 21 Chapter V The hatchery 31 Chapter VI Mainly the twentieth century 39 Chapter VII The wet North versus the dry South 49 Chapter VIII Grayling 53 Chapter IX A miscellany 57 Appendix I Offcers and Keepers 67 Appendix II Personae 69 Appendix III Who’s who in Druidale 85 Bibliography 87 Index 91 List of Illustrations Frontispiece. The falls in a big April food. Fig. 1. Copy of the frst page of a list of members in 1859. 3 Fig. 2. Sir Mathew Wilson. 6 Fig. 3. Sir Arthur Godwin, 1907, the First Lord Mayor of Bradford in ceremonial dress. 9 Fig. 4. Scale House in 1839. 10 Fig. 5. Jerome Emmott in his joiners’ workshop adjacent to the Tennant Arms. 15 Fig. 6. The hatchery circa 1938. 17 Fig. 7. The Wharfedale otter hounds. 19 Fig. 8. List of Trout Flies for the River Wharfe. Extract from the Reverend Bury’s scrapbook. 22 Fig. 9. ‘The Secretary had a good day’. 26 Fig. 10. A series of hatching boxes of the type used at Kilnsey. 33 Fig. 11. Under the Crag. 34 Fig. 12. George Bertram Holdsworth outside Netherside Hall in the early 1920s. 40 Fig. 13. The earliest extant club accounts for 1874. 44 Fig. 14. A surviving Kilnsey creel. 57 Fig. 15. ‘They put their rods through the open window’ (From Cadman 1898). 59 Fig. 16. Advertisement for J.W. Refftt’s reel. 65 Chapter I: Introduction Origins In his book “Upper Wharfedale” published in 1900 Harry Speight quotes Mr Samuel Milne - Milne (p.79), an early member of the club (he joined 1856 ), as saying that KAC “was formed about 1840 by a few Halifax anglers, excellent fshermen they were, unsurpassed even now, who had for some years previously angled in the Wharfe at Kilnsey”. Though Milne-Milne lived most of his life in Leeds he was originally from Halifax and, through his father, probably had a direct connection with the very early membership. This source complements the account given by Henry Cadman (1898) in “Harry Druidale”, who notes that before 1840 the river at Kilnsey was “practically unpreserved” and that about that time a group of visiting anglers staying at the Tennant Arms resolved to form an angling club with Kilnsey as its headquarters. Cadman writes further that “the Reverend William Berry [sic] of Chapel House........an ardent angler interested himself in this matter, and he may be designated as the founder of Kilnsey Angling Club”.

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