A Week in Arcadia

I am currently losing myself in writing a commission for Mr. Mathew Clayton who is guest editor of the next issue of the Caught by the River fanzine 'An Antidote to Indifference' and has asked me to write a diary piece on a week in Arcadia.  Once upon a time in Arcadia every angler would keep a diary and many were anonymous.  I have always wanted to know the identity of the gentleman who caught a Roach of 1lb 11oz from Stoke Newington Reservoir on the last day of the season in the year 1936.  I shall never know his name, only that the weather was very bright and that he caught his remarkable fish in a keen easterly wind.

Embarkation

In kitchens across Arcadia, terriers are being kissed, berets and bobble hats are being blessed, pots of tea are being drunk trawlerman style and to the sound of Elgar on the radiogram, anglers everywhere are preparing to embark upon the final weeks of the coarse fishing season.

Relics

Found in the same carrier bag at Spitalfields on Thursday a pair of Milwards Wooden Devon Minnows dating to the period in Arcadia known as the Post War Years, hermetically sealed in their celluloid packets, unused and ready for the reliquary.

Spitalfields

Found at Spitalfields on Thursday amongst a carrier bag of floats a number of slotted pike bungs, some of them sporting the livery of Pegley-Davies.

Models Walking Up and Down in Arcadia

An early start in Arcadia and for once not at the beckoning of a faraway auction house or a Car Boot Sale for the Soul, but an early morning excursion to the opening of London Fashion Week where at the invitation of Art School Heroes Antoni & Alison , the Empress and I watched Models Walking Up and Down.   The show was a riot of biscuits, tweed, brown paper and a reminder of the truth & beauty often shown in old fishing tackle catalogues.

Tingle of Gleadless Road

Once upon a time in Arcadia, and usually on a Thursday during Fashion Week, ladies and gentlemen looking for a combination of fishing tackle and fancy goods would take the trolley bus No. 34 or No. 35 to G. Tingle whose premises were on the Gleadless Road in the town of Sheffield and where maggots were sold by the pint and served solid.

Ladies and gentlemen at a loss during Fashion Week today and wishing to find a similar combination of Vintage Fishing Tackle for the Soul including some choice fancy goods at lowest prices may take whichever route they choose to Sheffield and look for Tingles, but are reminded that they can also find such items on my stall at Spitalfields Antiques Market in the district of London known as E1, and which is open from a half past seven until three o'clock sharp on Thursdays only.

Dragnut

Found at Kempton on a previous Tuesday, a fine example of a Strikeright Tideflo Centrepin Reel, measuring 4 1/8th of an inch and featuring the unusual Four-in-One S.R. Dragnut.   In its original box and complete with paperwork the reel is for sale with immediate effect to sea anglers of distinction in the Just in, Sir corner of my website.