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Les Clark
Guest
I got a bit bored and put Richard Walker`s name in google and came up with this nice little story which is well worth reading (page one).
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Les Clark
Guest
Sorry ,It is written by a chap called Derek Lewis .
Merv Harrison
Senior Member
Cheers Les, nice little story.
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay
Guest
I recieved an Email from Derek Lewis regarding this article some time ago.
The company **** and his mother owned was of course Lloyds and Co of Letchworth, which is still going strong. They specialise in large mowing machinery for golf courses, cricket pitches and other grassed open spaces. **** was responsible for the design of many of those mowers still made today.
The company **** and his mother owned was of course Lloyds and Co of Letchworth, which is still going strong. They specialise in large mowing machinery for golf courses, cricket pitches and other grassed open spaces. **** was responsible for the design of many of those mowers still made today.
Les, thanks that was a story I hadn't seen before, and I have read an awful lot about **** Walker.
Can you just imagine what it would have been like to meet and talk 'all things fishing' with him?
Can you just imagine what it would have been like to meet and talk 'all things fishing' with him?
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Les Clark
Guest
I also got on to: MKIV carp and Avon split cane Fishing Rods @www.Bruceandwalker .com.uk .
It tells how Walker built the original design for the MKIV carp &the MKIV avon rods ,but what blew my head off was the price of these rods back in the late 50`s early 60`s ,?800-?850 each ,?
Ron am I right or have I misread ?
It tells how Walker built the original design for the MKIV carp &the MKIV avon rods ,but what blew my head off was the price of these rods back in the late 50`s early 60`s ,?800-?850 each ,?
Ron am I right or have I misread ?
F
Frank "Chubber" Curtis
Guest
I think you have misread. My first Mk IV Avon cost about ?7. You could also buy the blanks and make your own for a fiver.
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Les Clark
Guest
Frank ,Have a look on the website and see what you make of it ,I must admit i thought it was a lot.
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Mr. Uncredible
Guest
Help! Have entered his name into Google and used both brit and world searches but don't come up with anything about the great man. Can any of you guys who've read this post the link to it?
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Mr. Uncredible
Guest
ok ignore me, put in **** walker and I found it.
For anyone else Derek Lewis
Have to say that despite all the great things you hear about the man I've never actually read a book about him. What's the recommended reading on and by **** Walker?
For anyone else Derek Lewis
Have to say that despite all the great things you hear about the man I've never actually read a book about him. What's the recommended reading on and by **** Walker?
Nigel,
What to recommend from Walker's writings? Well anything and everything you can get your hands on
One of my favourites is "Drop Me A Line" which chronicles his correspondence with Maurice Ingham over quite a period of time and which to me, demonstrates Walker's absolute generosity with his time, his knowledge and his vast expertise on many subjects.
I must have read this book literally dozens of times and I have a copy on the coffee table in my apartment here in
Holland as I write.
One of his smaller book(lets) is; "How Fish Feed" and although written a long time ago it is as current and useful now as when it was written.
What to recommend from Walker's writings? Well anything and everything you can get your hands on
One of my favourites is "Drop Me A Line" which chronicles his correspondence with Maurice Ingham over quite a period of time and which to me, demonstrates Walker's absolute generosity with his time, his knowledge and his vast expertise on many subjects.
I must have read this book literally dozens of times and I have a copy on the coffee table in my apartment here in
Holland as I write.
One of his smaller book(lets) is; "How Fish Feed" and although written a long time ago it is as current and useful now as when it was written.
R
Ron 'The Hat' Clay
Guest
My first Mk IV carp rod I made myself from a kit I purchased from JB Walker (no relation) of Hythe in Kent.
Then I aquired a Mark VI Avon made by B. James. which cost me ?11-19-6d if I remember correctly. In real terms that would be about ?600 in todays money. The kits from JB Walker cost about ?4-00.
About 1965 the availablity of good split cane prompted the gradual move to fibreglass. I made myself a couple of Avon rods from Sportex Blanks obtained for me by Tag Barnes who was working for Sportex in Sheffield at the time.
**** didn't like the early glass rods as he quite correctly said they were too floppy and large in the diameter compared with cane. However Hardys Fibretube and Going Bros blanks were excellent and by 1969 or thereabouts Walker was helping Hardys design a whole series of rods, from still water fly rods to Carp and Avon rods.
Walker was the first man in the world to catch a fish on a carbon fibre fly rod ca 1972 by the way.
He was at the forefront of rod design, yet made very little money out of it. He once told me in a letter that angling was his hobby. He made his money from designing and selling lawnmowers which was another great passion of his. He loved his job and even today, Lloyds are considered to be the Rolls Royce of mowing machinery.
Then I aquired a Mark VI Avon made by B. James. which cost me ?11-19-6d if I remember correctly. In real terms that would be about ?600 in todays money. The kits from JB Walker cost about ?4-00.
About 1965 the availablity of good split cane prompted the gradual move to fibreglass. I made myself a couple of Avon rods from Sportex Blanks obtained for me by Tag Barnes who was working for Sportex in Sheffield at the time.
**** didn't like the early glass rods as he quite correctly said they were too floppy and large in the diameter compared with cane. However Hardys Fibretube and Going Bros blanks were excellent and by 1969 or thereabouts Walker was helping Hardys design a whole series of rods, from still water fly rods to Carp and Avon rods.
Walker was the first man in the world to catch a fish on a carbon fibre fly rod ca 1972 by the way.
He was at the forefront of rod design, yet made very little money out of it. He once told me in a letter that angling was his hobby. He made his money from designing and selling lawnmowers which was another great passion of his. He loved his job and even today, Lloyds are considered to be the Rolls Royce of mowing machinery.
R
Ron 'The Hat' Clay
Guest
The one thing **** loved was a good arguement. I remember sitting with **** and Tag Barnes in the bar at a National Angling Show in London.
Tag was launching his new range of Sportex glass Avon, Carp and Pike rods.
Walker told Tag that he was on the right tack with the rods yet he also commented that one wouldn't make a violin out of glass. Tag counted this comment by suggesting that perhaps someone should make a violin out of glass - it might sound better.
Walker then said we should have this debate in Print in AT, and that's just what happened several weeks later.
Walker had the ability to stir things up. He even wrote in his column - ca 1978 that he feared for the future of Britain's indigenous fish due to the over popularity of carp!!
And he rightly claimed that it was perhaps he who caused the carp explosion. Something he had never really intended.
Tag was launching his new range of Sportex glass Avon, Carp and Pike rods.
Walker told Tag that he was on the right tack with the rods yet he also commented that one wouldn't make a violin out of glass. Tag counted this comment by suggesting that perhaps someone should make a violin out of glass - it might sound better.
Walker then said we should have this debate in Print in AT, and that's just what happened several weeks later.
Walker had the ability to stir things up. He even wrote in his column - ca 1978 that he feared for the future of Britain's indigenous fish due to the over popularity of carp!!
And he rightly claimed that it was perhaps he who caused the carp explosion. Something he had never really intended.
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Les Clark
Guest
I think that JB Walkers of Hythe are still there or at least were untill a few years ago.