About Ware Angling Club
Welcome to Ware Angling Club. The club was born in the back room of The White Swan public house in Ware in 1968 by our founder and first President ‘ Mr Alf Hanmore.’ In its first year the club had 35 members and the subs were paid on a monthly basis of one shilling and sixpence or seven and a half pence in today’s money, that is 90p a year.
In the early days the Club had its junior and adult members and they travelled far and wide to the away club matches, by coach. There was also a strong following of anglers who formed a sea fishing section and they travelled to the coast to fish from the piers and those with the stomach for it went and fished the wrecks from a boat.
Most of the local matches then were fished on the River Lea, through Ware Town, or behind Wickhams Wharf (now the flats opposite Tumbling Bay) or along the towpath through St Margaret’s. Believe me as a local at weekends if you were not on the river bank by 6.30am you could not get a swim as anglers from North London arrived on the early trains in droves to get the best swims. Then all the riverbanks were wonderful natural banks, grass lined with rushes and overhanging trees. Not what we are greeted with today, concrete walls, steel guardrails and cycle tracks.
In 1977 the club took on the fishing rights on the Old River Lee from Tumbling Bay downstream. This was also a wonderful venue for our home matches, it offered fishing that dreams were made of.
I took over the running of the club in 1978, it grew and flourished to 400 members. The Club took on new waters, Nine Ashes, the River Stort and Pretty Lake. We joined the Turnford Consortium.
In 2006 I had to go and spoil everything, as many of you know I had a heart attack and I had to stand down at Secretary and Treasurer.
This gave way to the appointment of a new Secretary to administer the running of the club. He offered a new enthusiasm and ideas with a vibrancy to take the club to a new level.
The club is now also a member of the Fishers Green Consortium, we have the fishing rights on Tumbling Bay Lake and Roydon Marina. In 2013 in partnership with Hertford Angling Club we took on the management of the Towpath Fishery.
All our waters offer alternative fishing to suit all aspects of coarse fishing.
The Club has introduced a new and modern method of administration, with computers, emails, a website and the like, at the flick of a switch everything is recorded, something I was never able to do.
So what does the future hold for us, a bright and prosperous one I am sure, the few bad things and the many good things that happened to the club in the past are now part of history and we must move on.
With your continued help and support to the Committee and to the club we can remain, in my opinion, the best fishing club in the Lee Valley offering by far the best value and the best fishing possible for our members.
Tight Lines
From
Dennis Bridgeman President – HLM (2014)
in 2009 the club along with others formed the Fishers Green Consortium.
In 2013 in partnership with Hertford AC the Towpath Fishery was formed.
Honorary Secretary – David Fussell 2013 -2018
Honorary Secretary – Darren Nixon 2018 –
Membership Secretary – Alan Satwick telephone 07594 185111
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