Coventry Anglers (inc. Billy Lane)

Kaga I think that when the canal was breeched it took a lot of debris down to the Slough including chemicals that had been left behind where the chip shop is now, so polluting the Slough. Few fish survived this and those that did were small. 1947 or thereabouts the fishing improved but only small roach and perch were caught. Right or wrong mid 50s I was party to reintroducing pike into the pool that I think improved the fish stock.

Norman, no question about the debris. The slough had already been polluted from about 35 onwards, I think about late 38, not sure now but there was so many dead fish in the slough that Fred Colledge, the farmer's son, collected them for a couple of days and ploughed them under in the field beyond the slough, even he would not feed them to his pigs. I was quite used to seeing twenty-thirty peewits swooping over that field, but it was quite obvious the bird numbers were dwindling, as to why I thought it was down in some way to the poisons. As I have posted before the Germans finished them off, by half that waste tip at Sutton Stop being washed down to the slough. But things like that didn't get highlighted in those days as you know. The biggest thing I saw get hooked in the canal was a dead body, the fisherman knew it wasn't a large fish, but somehow it had been trapped and he had pulled it free, we never saw him come fishing again. What might interest some of the anglers, I heard after the war some club put over 6,000 fish in the canal at Tusses Bridge, I have no idea if that was true as I had left the district by then

Dcole - you may be interested to know that the fishing tackle shop at Tusses Bridge is still going strong. By coincidence my son was only discussing it a couple of days ago. He buys all of his fishing tackle there because they are good. They almost have to be good because they run a business that cannot be seen from the road because it is hidden by the road bridge, and which is in a road where it is difficult to park your car. Despite all of that the fishermen still come.

That's lovely to hear 'Not Local' . My grandfather had a big sign made up so that people knew it was there . I was only very young at the time so I can't remember much. I know they had a parrot that talked a lot! My grandmother worked the small holding and grew all her own vegetables there. I think there was half an acre attached to the property. My mum's just told me that written in the deeds was that 'Dick Turpin' stabled his horse there and it used to be called 'The Old Coach Inn'!

Dcole, that must have been rough digging for it had five houses on there plus the shop until about 34, the only way you could get to the shop in those days were the towpath or a small path alongside the wall of the bridge from the farm entrance, on the other side of the entrance lived Paul Guy's grandparents, those fields behind right up to the 'Basin' and down to the Slough I worked on from a boy until I was seventeen. Never heard the Dick Turpin angle, right outside the bay window a workman died when they built the new bridge 1936/7 time. Would be interesting to me if you had any relative in or around that area before the end of the war. If you or anyone wants to know about that area before 1945 then maybe I can help. Regards, Kaga.

Hi Kaga It was a quarter of an acre they had not half (my mistake). My grandparents moved there in the late 1950s, when my mum was 14. They brought the shop from somebody called Dennis Clarke and his wife, who had a son called Michael. My grandad sold it to a man named Snape, who owned a pub on Windmill Road. The fields at the side belonged to Colleges Farm, my mum used to go mangle picking there (whatever a mangle is?) Sid Simpson lived at the bottom of the garden in a cottage. Mr Higgs, the Silversmith, lived in the house adjoining the house and paid my grandad rent. There was no sewage pipes when they arrived or plumbing . It would be very interesting to know the history of the site and if there was a Dick Turpin connection. All my grandparents have passed away now sadly, so there's no one to ask.

Dcole, yes it was always a double house, then a small garden, crammed in between the garden and the farm path were four small cottages, and a large house, but they all disappeared early thirties. It was Main Farm, old man Colledge's daughter was the teacher at the little school for over forty years. When he was about to retire, he built four houses next to Stringers shop, he occupied one and rented the rest, his son Fred took over the farm, and I worked for Fred. Mangles were a root crop for cattle, like a swede, put them in mangle hopper, turned the handle chopped them up like chips, fed them to the cattle during winter. I never heard of Dick Turpin the highwayman in Warwickshire. Perhaps our forum will know? Very few had plumbing until 1930's then in 1939 a guy called Franklin built the houses from the power station down towards the brook bridge, then they put the big gun behind them and shattered some of the windows before they were twelve months old. At the bottom of the first field there's a little brook that comes through a culvert, under the canal from the other side of Lentons Lane and feeds the slough.

I can fully understand that Tusses Bridge angling is the oldest in Coventry if not the Midlands, with all that canal plus the 'slough' But I think in the history of part of Coventry, someone should have written a book about 'Main Farm' and that area, for way back in the twenties, Main Farm had a tennis court, and in one of the granary barns they had an old His Masters Voice record machine, and teenagers from around the area gathered and danced and met in general. The old man Colledge had two sons and a daughter. In the twenties they were teenagers, or early twenties, the wagon barn became the bike storage place. There were no phones, no portable radios, etc and no village hall as such. In summer they would gather and play tennis, or wander down to the slough, and punt around in the small houseboat, lush green meadows, flowers, birds by the score, it must have been an idyllic time, lying at the edge of a leading town in the country. We had scores of photo's of the scenes, sadly they got lost over time. Sorry for going off topic. Kaga.

Most interested to read about Billy Lane, I use to pick up 6 pence worth of maggots from his shop in Much Park St on my way home from the tanner rush at the Gaumont on a Saturday morning, and buy one hook size 16 so I could go fishing in a pond up by the Nugget pub off Brownshill Green Road. We fish for Sticklebacks with a size 16 can you imagine. When we lost the hook it was back to the bent pin. I seem to remember a tackle shop in Primrose Hill St. nearly opposite the Globe cinema. I am sure it was Albert Sharp who kept it. The tackle shop on Radord Rd was owned by Les Swann who changed to a pet shop and then moved down to the shops at the bottom of Lydgate Hill. I lived in one of the old cottages, opposite the Radford common. I have a book signed by Billy Lane, called, Billy Lanes Encyclopaedia of Float Fishing. Priced at £1.75 1971. I wonder what it would be worth now. Freeman

Billy Lane's book was on ebay at £6.99. It didn't attract any bids.