Coventry Anglers (inc. Billy Lane)

Hiya, I would like to clarify some points I read on earlier posts. The fishing tackle shop in Longford was not owned by the Lomas family. It was opened and owned by my father, Wilf Moore, who also owned the maggot breeding business in Exhall on what was to become the Bayton Road Industrial Estate. c1955 my father purchased Mile Tree Farm near Bulkington and moved the maggot breeding business to there. I remember well the tackle shop owned by the Lomas family, which was as far as I remember in Station Street not Cross Road, which was sold to Cyril Cooper. As far as Ern Smallman, yes he did have a shop in Lower Ford Street, I delivered maggots there many times and yes he did live in Bretford. To return to the shop in Longford, which at times I served in, the legend above the door was "the home of Isaac Walton". My father was the man who bred the maggots that Billy Lane used when he won the World Championship and also for the Coventry team when the won the "All England". My father was affectionally known as Deafy Moore, he was profoundly deaf, he fished for Radford Social Club and I have some of the medals that he won including a runners up medal for a contest connected to the Festival of Britain. I do have some knowledge of the fishing tackle shops in and around Coventry in the 50s 60s and 70s having at some time supplied them all with what my father described as "World Championship winning maggots"

I was about to write that there was once another tackle shop on Aldermans Green Road at the bridge crossing the cut just before the old power station. I looked on google earth to get my bearings and am delighted to see it's still going. The business must be 60 years old at least, lovely to see an extant link with my childhood. I've never been an angler but I spent a great deal of my childhood around (sometimes in) the Coventry cut. I never saw a fish caught - ever. Perhaps because "my" stretch was alongside Herberts, Courtaulds and the gas works the pollution was too great. I also thought I remembered a tackle shop in Cross Road but I think Maggotbreeder is correct, it was actually in Station Street.

1970 Yellow Pages lists: Charterhouse Angling Supplies, 165 Humber Avenue Cyril Cooper, 153 Station Street East W H Lane, 31 London Road F Marshall, 360 Aldermans Green Road Ern Smallman, 73 Lower Ford Street In the "white pages": G D Lomas, 184 Station Street East (no trade shown, may be private residence)

Well we have discussed bogs, so we might as well chat about maggots. Some years ago we were demolishing the Bell Green Community Centre, our driver had left his truck parked on the road, when it was struck by a Luton van, it had torn the side off the van which was loaded with maggots. What a mess! there were trays of maggots all over the road and traffic running through them. It turned out the van belonged to Lane's

As far as I can remember, in the 1960s and early 70s there were the following fishing tackle shops in Coventry: Wilf Moore, Longford Road Frank Marshall, Tusses Bridge Arthur Lomas/Cyril Cooper, Station Street Jim Ashby, Foleshill Road Ern Smallman, Lower Ford Street Pete Russeyvelt, Holyhead Road Billy Lane, London Road joe rogers lythalls lane All of these at some point or other were supplied with maggots bred by my father and myself at Mile Tree Farm. I hope this has been of some help As well as supplying these tackle shops we supplied many shops in other towns and cities. Our main outlet were the numerous tackle shops in Birmingham. We had customers in Derby, Bristol, Oxford, Nottingham, Nuneaton, Bedworth and other towns as well.

There was also a Fishing Tackle and Bait shop opposite what was the Blue Star garage on Radford Road.

Around 1960 as a 14 year old, with virtually limitless access to fishing tackle and bait (see my previous posts) after school I used to cycle from Mile Tree Farm to either Wyken Slough or the Oxford Canal, Tusses Bridge. Out of the two venues I found the canal to be the better. Arthur Lomas told me to fish where the warm water entered the canal from the power station, fish about 5' out and use pinkies. What good advice he gave me, it wasn't unusual to pull out fish after fish. Nothing big, mainly small roach but they were enough to keep me entertained. My father used to donate a prize of a complete fishing tackle kit to the Coventry and District Angling Association for their juvenile contest held there every year. I entered it with glee expecting to win with the prize being to me, money instead of the tackle, which of course I already had plenty of. Its value was about £20, quite a lot of money in those days. I was pegged on the bend where the canal turns towards Sutton Stop and never even had a bite let alone catch a fish. As they say, c'est la vie!

Hi MBS, in the 80s my kids wanted to go fishing, I knew very little about fishing so went to Tusses for advice, same as you, pink maggots. I purchased two 3m whips and all relevant line hooks and floats for less than £10. We fished by the Elephant & Castle, it was handy for Tusses, pop & crisps for the kids and a pint for me. We had many happy hours of entertainment and I still have those two whips to this day. I think my grandchildren may be next in line to use them. Thanks for the memories

Hello Mick, I'm going to be a bit technical here, lol. I'm going to talk maggot breeding. There are basic three different flies used by maggot breeders, or were in my day. There is the bluebottle, the greenbottle and one we called the blackfly. The bluebottle produces the biggest and best maggots which are sold either white or dyed various colours, pink being one of them. The greenbottle produces a naturally pink maggot, very popular with anglers but smaller. The blackfly produces a maggot similar to the bluebottle but a lot smaller. In my maggot breeding days anglers wanted big bluebottle maggots and pinkies and they were the fly any self-respecting maggot breeder used. We tended to look down with scorn on breeders that used the blackfly. So the pinkies I used were greenbottle maggots, not bluebottle maggots dyed pink. My maggot breeding days ended in 1974 when we sold Mile Tree Farm to Joe deMulder. I believe that after he died, the maggot farm was rented to the Lanes who vastly expanded the business until he built his own place out Claverdon way, which again as far as I know is to this day still operated by the Lane family. Mile Tree Farm and the maggot breeding buildings are still there but are now of course not used as a maggot farm. I knew personally three generations of the Lanes, W H Lane being the one who opened the first shop in Coventry, Billy was his son and everyone knows his great angling achievements, and Billy's son Alan.

I lived in Lower Ford Street during the 60's & 70's. Ernie Smallman's saddlery & fishing tackle shop was at 73 just before the Godiva Street turn. It was a great old shop with dark wood cabinets full of floats, and the window was full of saddles, boots and fishing tackle. It smelt of leather, horse food and maggots. Mr & Mrs Smallman ran the shop, and when I started fishing aged 9, introduced me to old Bill Hammond who taught to to fish - great people.

Well, as others did, my dad knew Billy Lane. We lived at the top of Whitefriars Street, slightly down from the monastery. My dad loved angling but as for myself I have no interest in fishing even though some friends / family love it. My dad would be 101 years old this year if he had lived that long.

Picture of Billy from Mirrorpix site

Great photo of him though I barely remember him

It was lovely reading all these stories My grandfather was Frank Marshall and he owned the fishing tackle shop in Aldermans Green on Tusses bridge. He died of cancer in 1979 sadly. Fishing was his life.

MBS, that post you wrote about the bend near Sutton Stop reminded me - I walked across right there carrying my bike, I was on my way to see my aunt in Parrotts Grove, that used to be a beautiful area, gorse bushes, tufts of long grass, finches, linnets, skylarks, yellow hammers, etc, couldn't have found a better spot to fish. Oh Gerry had emptied the cut at that time. The shop by the canal with the bay window on the towpath, and across the cut was the gateway to the allotments, late 19th/early 20th century was a rope and tackle shop for the canal horse boats, and the pub could house up to twenty horses at any one time in their stables. As the boat trade dropped off the fishing became more popular so it gradually became a fishing tackle shop, around the thirties. Sometime then my uncle moved into that house/shop for a short time, his descendants are still in the area. Early part of the war, the bank was burst and the water ran down to the slough, so from Tusses Bridge to Sutton Stop there was but a trickle of water. I think the bridge angling club was the first to be formed and the oldest in Coventry? The slough was a private pool during the thirties, it cost sixpence a day to fish, you were issued with a greeny-blue ticket. It had its own fishing tackle shop in a hut half the size of a barrack room, in the hut along with the tackle was a stuffed 12.1/2lb. carp in a glass case, that I personally saw pulled from the water. PS. In the early thirties I seem to remember there was a shed attached to the shop bedroom that stood on the pavement, giving it a funny appearance.