In reply to Post #969
PM Reference book cost

In reply to Post #967
One year i shall never forget was the year 1967 it was horrible i remember walking down the fields to bomere hoping to have a few casts at the pike with a spinner. when i was met with a terrible sight at the farm belonging to mr adkins there were a number of cattle piled up dead, and they had been set on fire, the stench from burning flesh was unbearable of course it was the year of foot and mouth. I suppose on reflection i should not have been there but most of the farmers around here were arable and did not rear or keep cattle. But Mr Adkins did he owned a big dairy heard and quite a few bullocks and sheep knowing the man on a personal level i felt very sorry for him for on that day his world stopped. And it was some time before he got back on his feet only for it to happen once again but he came through it all, unfortunately he passed away a few years ago but i have many fond memories of the gentleman i always remember him inviting us in for a drink on christmas eve, it was his way of saying thank you for all we had done IE the rabbiting keeping his farm yard and sheds clear of rats etc. As we sat before the roaring fire with a glass of scotch in our hands , he blurted out don't you think you should come to church with me and the wife to thank god for what you have graham looked at me through the corner of his eye as if to say lets get out of here, then Bernard speaks up and says its not a matter of what we have got, but what we have not got, i nearly burst out laughing, but that was john Adkins he was the chairman of the parish church in condover and a very religious man and he thought every body should be the same.
the terrible burning of the cattle in the out break of foot and mouth 1967

I got on well with the said gentlemen and really had the run of his land we did all the rabbit clearance and controlled most of his vermin he was a big shooting man and always had a few pheasants on his land he always had a couple of shoots every year for his pals and neighbouring farmers , being out at night with the rifles rabbiting graham and i would take the opportunity to have a few of Johns pheasants when they went up to roost at night, we never really over did it we would shoot just enough to make a shilling or two john said to me one day pete have you seen any body shooting my birds no says i . well says john they are not showing up on the shoot like they were, some one must be poaching us, i had a job to keep a straight face, times were still very hard and we needed the money i really liked the old man and stopped the pheasant poaching on his land well i suppose you don't bite the hand that feeds you. a little bit more latter

In reply to Post #971
One year i shall never forget was the year 1967 it was horrible ......

it was also the year i was born!

In reply to Post #972
cor brian i am showing my age but seriously where ever you looked they were burning cattle i have lived through three epidemics of foot and mouth i was 25 years old then it does not bare thinking about and it only seems like yesterday

In reply to Post #973
Pete

are you any good on foraging or wild mushrooms and fungi?? i'd love to learn more.... but people are so secretative about it..

In reply to Post #974
Davy when i fished on one lake in Shropshire a couple came around the surrounding land and woods collecting these mushrooms they were hippy type people but on asking him he said they were magic mushroom or for making the drug god its knowing which one to pick there are so many different types some are deadly and can kill They are still collecting them as we saw the same people last year they always stop for a chat i will put a bit on about fungi latter

In reply to Post #971
Davey c asked me a question yesterday about foraging for mushrooms he mentioned it was very secretive i suppose he is talking about the magic mushroom, when i fished at Berrington years ago and the hippies came down to swim who i have mentioned in an earlier thread. They were always collecting the magic mushroom in those days it was legal but not any more there was a ban brought out a few years ago they showed me what to look for and what to avoid the real name for the magic mushroom is the liberty cap its found in cow pastures usually growing in the shorter grass it will not grow on cow pats but in the grass near by of course it causes hallucinations when eaten i once asked the one hippie what it was like she said like living in a dream i am afraid not for me, the hippie commune was at the old Berrington hall they ran a health shop, in Shrewsbury i am sure she told me they sold it in a dried up form from the shop, but that was years ago they would not be able to sell it now since the law was changed.

the magic mushroom the liberty cap


The one to avoid or so she said and i will have to look it up to be sure is the fly agaric which people do eat but can make you very sick but does cause hallucinations that's the one you associate fairies and elves with which you see in children's books it is a very nasty fungie and can make you very ill.
The libery capes

The fly agric that causes halucinations but makes you very sick a very nasty fungi


When i used to go and see the gypsies years ago they used to collect the mushrooms from the fields the buttons and the big horse mushrooms old jack lock always told me not to eat anything that does not look right and never eat a red one i never have, i don't pretend i know a lot about the fungi around our woods and fields but one thing i can say they look very pretty especially the ones that grow on fallen trees that are rotting away.

i know when i was a young boy my mother and myself would walk miles mushrooming she would make mushroom soup with them but you dont see many doing it today nothing nicer than fresh mushrooms with bacon and eggs but in the years following war you would eat most things and wild mushrooms were very sort after we would pick a basket full which would be shared out between the family and you neighbours. well a bit more latter
The horse mushroom we would pick in the war years

In reply to Post #976
I was just thinking back to my time as a teenager i am afraid i was a bit of a rum one they still talk about me after all these years i would as you already know poach and fight, i am afraid the latter got me into lots of trouble i would have a go at anyone that threatened my way of life, i have a few scars to show for it i was a rebel i know my mother and father were really worried about the youth i had become, at times i really did not like myself i got mixed up with a gang of teddy boys and on a Friday and Saturday nights would see us at the local dances and we would take on all comers and i mean fight i have seen broken chairs tables turned over broken noses you name it.

But one night i was brought to my senses i had a fight with a local hard character and won, a week latter saw me at a local dance in shrews bury at the music hall i went to the gents and four youths were waiting for me behind the door it was gang warfare i got the biggest hiding and kicking i have ever had i awoke in hospital with a broken nose cracked ribs bruised all over never again would that happen, i must admit the four youths had there comeuppance but that was that i looked at myself and thought no more. And that's when i took fishing quite seriously being out and about down some lake or being down the woods, anybody's woods but beside fishing and shooting i loved wild life i loved to just sit and watch the birds and animals around me i would watch the fox the badger i had no camera then only an old Kodak box camera which was not up to the job of taking that sort of picture, i would go and find the birds nests not taking the eggs just looking i would clime the trees to the buzzards nest it was all part of my life which i loved i would poach the trout from the rivers and the eels from the honey meadow as it was known in the days of my youth. By using big bunches of lob worms mostly caught on night lines from right under the keepers nose, i would poach the local woods for pheasants or hide in the hedge row and feed the pheasant raisins and sultanas then catch them with a fishing hook and line it was a clean and easy way to get a few birds for friends and family it was a wonderful way of life i would ferret the hedge rows catch a couple and be away to the next Bury i spent all my spare time out in the country side at least my parents knew i was safe.
The buzzards nest hight up in the tree



I would hide in the under growth and watch the big shoots on the estates, and i was never once caught i would watch the pheasant crash into cover being brought down by one of the posh guns and i would be away, and if i had half the chance i would collect the bird long before the dogs appeared, i can still hear the gun saying its over there keeper in a very posh voice and watch the keeper shake his head i never went home without a brace or two we still needed the food although things were now on a better footing it was still very hard and wages were not that much i would take my air rifle down the woods and shoot a pheasant or two i could make a few bob doing this as well as help feed the family , they were glorious days the days of my youth . well a bit more latter

The pheasents in the snow i would have one or two away

In reply to Post #977
My greatest memory is definitely my friend ship with dick walker . he was my boy hood hero dick was born in Hitchin in may 1918 and i think if i remember right he first started fishing at the age of three and went with his grandfather for those that don't know in the second world war dick helped develop radar he then went to the family firm lloyds of London who made and repaired lawn mowers also making the big gang mowers they used at ascot and race courses all over Britain, when i first knew him he supplied Shropshire council with mowers.

He did not suffer fools gladly and was also a very educated gentleman as a youngster i worshiped the man and i was absolutely dumbstruck when i had a letter from the great man wanting to know how we caught the big Bream and what methods we used he also invited me down to fish his private stretch on the ouse and stay in his private fishing hut i snatched his hand off meet dick walker i could not believe my luck. So it was arranged graham myself Dennis Kelly and a lad called George Bebington would go down for a week end the tackle was piled into Dennis car and away we went eventually reaching our destination in the afternoon.
my freind dick walker


after a snack we decided to try our luck before dark i choose a weedy section with a central channel and proceeded to trot a float down but it was not to last looking across the fields i see this big man heading my way i realized it was my hero, he wore his trade mark big hat, how you doing pete he said i was speechless i have brought you these if there any good to you, he had two rods in his hand and proceeded to take them out of the rod bags one was an 11ft palakona cane rod which dick had designed and was made for Fred j Taylor for bream fishing it was the first one made a demo rod, i think hardy had made it, the other was a 10 ft Avon palakona cane beautifully finished to say the least i was cob smacked have you caught anything pete not as yet dick lets forget the fishing he said and go back to the hut and put the fire on and have a drink and something to eat and that's exactly what we did he had brought a couple of bottles of whisky along and we ate and drunk the evening away until the great man departed around midnight as he went he said you will hear from me again pete . well he heard from me first the gas fire had a fault as it was frosty we left it on low and nearly gassed our selves we were all sick and had headaches he could not stop apologizing pete come down and see me at the factory next week i have a friend coming from Shropshire county council his name is Kieth Wilkinson ill tell him to give you a ring at work and that is what happened, i remained friends with dick until his death in 1985, i have already written a piece about dick at the beginning of my stories so really this is for the younger generation some may not even know his name but if it was not for dick and co, carp fishing would not be like it is today so long may his memory live on a little more latter pete

In reply to Post #978
There was nothing nicer than to be beside a small river or stream early in a morning first light the times i have done that fishing for the trout it was a wonderful time of day you would see so much the kingfisher with his vibrant colours the little dipper even the sand martins the water vole which were quite common in my younger days and if you were really lucky you may catch sight of foxy or the badger they were great days always so much to do and see never a dull moment.

The beautiful brown trout that i would poach in the days of my youth

I was up before the bailiffs and would start fishing at newing-ton bridge and slowly make my way upstream i used my one rod for most things in those days it was Hardy's combination rod so i could take a top for spinning which was about eight ft when made up. the other one i used for trundling a worm was 10 ft i always set the minnow trap the night before as in those days the rivers teamed with these small fish, i would catch twenty in the bottle they could not get back out when they had entered . I would kill one if spinning and mount it in a flight you put a spike through its mouth and clip the fins into the minnows body they were lethal and caught hundreds of trout using this method but i liked to use the worm either float fish or free lining. I loved free lining just a split shot on the line near the hook a couple of red worms from the farmers muck heap and you were in business i would drop it in the fast water beside the bank and let it make its own way down stream keeping in touch with my finger on the spool there was no mistaking a bite the rod would hoop over and you were in and with the light rod it gave you a good scrap this combination rod made so much difference to my fishing thinking back i don't know how my parents could afford to buy such a beautiful rod, as i have stated before when my parents died and we cleaned the house out i found a receipt for the actual rod it was 70 pounds from Mr forests fishing shop in shrews bury a lot of money in those days and combined with the Mitchell real i was certainly set up, i could fish for anything with this rod from trout to pike it had about five or six different tops including a fly rod.
The lady of the river the gray-ling


But i had loving parents although they could be strict they always encouraged me to fish and i did even thought it meant me playing truant from school which got me into a fair bit of trouble i have already mentioned that in an earlier thread, i would carry on up the river a cast here a cast there i don't know there was so much more to being out on the river bank at this time in a morning the dew had covered the field the smell of the new mown grass cut the day before the smell of the river bank from the plants that adorned its bank it was pure magic one that is still ingrained in my memory from all those years ago, by the time i had got to the bridge that crossed the river i would maybe have caught five or six good trout, i would sit under the bridge and just listen to the sounds going on around me the water would babble as it glided over the stones beneath the bridge the dipper going back and forwards to her nest built high up in a hole in the brick work, the small wren with her shrill call and of course the robin. i would spin this section as the water ran very deep under the bridge at the far side, i would always catch a few under this old bridge before making my way back home for breakfast with a bag full of trout but i forgot to mention the lady of the river the gray-ling i would catch a great many of these beautiful fish mostly float fishing with maggot as bait which i collected from the abitor, they were great days days of my youth i would catch the trout to order for my family and friends and neighbors most of the locals were to afraid to fish the river in those days, as it was heavily bailiffs and if caught you would end up in court, but i could run and hide and i never rally gave it a second thought and believe me i have had to hide on a good many occasions even hiding in the undergrowth beside the river but that was years ago things have now changed they have recently stocked this river with salmon Parr its a good job it was not in the days of my youth

well a bit more latter

In reply to Post #979
As i stood in the wood today the sun shone brightly and the clouds cast shadows, little pool gleamed and sparkled as i watched a fish broke surface at least the fish in here have not perished in the cold of winter we were there for our fox shoot i did explain that do gooders have let a lot of foxes go caught up in the cities, and we have got to clear them up poor little things can not even look after there selves, but i am afraid not enough of our syndicate turned up so it was trying to find a needle in a haystack but never the less we carried on the best we could but it was a disaster we did not shoot one but we did see three, and one even sat down in front of me he did not know i was there he was about 100 yds from me and looked in quite good nic
a city fox

As i stood a wood pecker hammered away at the rotten tree behind me it certainly echoed in the quietness of the woods he carried on for about an hour i did catch sight of him banging away maybe trying to get the insects out or maybe making a hole for his nest but he certainly took no notice of me for i was not standing to far away he was a great spotted wood pecker, the birds are starting to pair up i saw a couple of crows carrying twigs for its nest the one thing i really enjoyed watching today was the peregrine falcon he was over the woods hunting and took a pigeon hitting and sending feathers floating down like snow from the sky they are incredible hunters and reach fantastic speeds when they swoop or should i say dive for there prey.

I was also pleased with the amount of wood cock we saw today i think we counted eleven all told lovely birds there were plenty of duck evident loads of teal and mallard nice to see now the ice has gone from the lakes, they are back in big style but they will live for another year as the shooting has finished for another year . one bird we are not seeing down our woods this year is the pigeon they would come in to roost in huge flocks and provided the guns with some testing shooting but not this year they have gone to pastures new where they can get better food to sustain there insatiable hunger, i did see some deer slots so they are still coming down to the lakes to drink and maybe keep to the cover of the woods at night its been an interesting day and a little bit tiring but at least we have been in the fresh air and there is always something to see. a little more latter

In reply to Post #980
In my younger days i would walk miles just my self and a friend called john guns in our hands and johns old dog to work the hedge rows we had no permission and even if we did, it usually ended with us taking a few pheasants it was not unusual for us to be out all day covering many miles i loved the way of life and would carry a little haversack with my sandwiches and a drink we would sit in the shade of some old tree or just sit in the woods and eat our sandwiches and chat about our lives about shooting and fishing and all thing good, i well remember this particular time ending up at a place called lyth hill it was only about three miles from my house it had a few small wooded coppice's on the hill and they were absolutely stuffed full of pheasants, they were put down by the condover shoot old bell, was the head keeper but he had loads of help with a number of under keepers well john and i got into these coverts oh what fun we had but in our excitement we forgot guns make a noise and john dog was not the best he would bark and whine and make one hell of a noise in his excitement to get at the birds.

The beautiful pheasant like we poached all those years ago

We had shot quite a few and put them in the sack when we heard a whistle the police had arrived, i saw the one land rover coming across the track below us bloody hell john run they are on to us how many keepers i do not know but off we went through the adjacent hedge and ran down hill as fast as we could go we dumped the sack with the pheasants, hiding it in an old gorse bush. On looking back i saw old butch johns dog running after us way behind then there was a bang and i saw poor old butch lurch forward and lie still they had shot john dog Christ john what you going to tell your parents yer old man will go mad i dunno know he said with tears in his eyes, ill go back and get him john no they will catch you maybe, but i am not leaving your dog there so back up the hill i went and found old butch on his side but still breathing he was covered in blood i carried him the best way i could as it was very awkward walking and half running with a dog in your arms especially in the brambles and cover that was on that hill. I could still hear the shouting from the keepers and the police blowing there whistles, john was still crying when i arrived by his side, it looks bad john don't think he will make it home, i am afraid he did not and died in my arms, we hid the guns and pushed old butch under some under growth to fetch latter that evening, i went to johns home and helped him explain what had happened his father was none to please did we know who had shot butch i am afraid we did not but told him old bell was involved now john dad was from the old school a real wild fellow and would stand no messing ill go see him son he said, please don't dad we have been poaching the birds we have hidden them up the fields and old butch is there as well, we made our way back as dark approached johns dad came with us we buried poor old butch under this old holly tree every time i pass that tree by i think about poor old butch for he must still lie there, but that was years ago. when i arrived home that night mum said Sgt landers had been to the house and wanted to know where i was she said she did not know, he said he would be back latter and he did, and stood eying my gun standing in the corner of the room he said have you been up the lyth today young man no says i why well Mr bells been poached and we shot a dog that disappeared, and some thought it may have been you where have you been down town says i, who with a friend he could not prove a thing and when he left you could see he was none to pleased well that's another day from my life and all true, poor old john passed away a few years ago with that dreaded disease cancer,
but i still have memories of that day all those years ago the year was 1958 and its as clear today as it was then . well a bit more latter


The shot bird in the back of my car

In reply to Post #981
What a wonder full life i have had i suppose old SAM had really helped and showed me so many things how to catch the humble rabbit with a snare how to shoot the pheasant but not on his patch, how to poach the trout and generally look after myself, to listen to the wild life or sit in the wood as darkness fell and hear the noises of the night, nowt will hurt you young'un he would say only another human that's what e must keep your eyes open for they are around the woods at night poaching the pheasants you know, he would speak with his broad shropshire accent at first i had a job understanding what he said but after a time i soon got used to it he would come down to my home at craven arms he would always call my mum misses and my dad the word chap he would speak up hello misses wheres the word chap today she would look at him, and shake her head, he always brought a rabbit or a pheasant down with him when he visited which was always welcome by my parents as times were very hard.
The humble rabbit sam taught me to snare

But he was a friend he taught me to stand up for myself he had a pair of boxing gloves and would prance around out side showing me how to box i don't think his wife approved very much she would shout don't you hurt that boy SAM no i wanna he would say i think the gloves belonged to his son i never talked about him or asked about the lad but there was a photo of him in the house which took pride an place on the old side board, sam's wife once told me he had died through injuries caused from wounds in the war and was buried abroad i never said any more about him as you could see the tears in her eyes i loved them both they had done so much for me and my parents i think they liked to see me around as it was like having there son back well that's the way i saw it.

When Sam died it left a big hole in my life i was only young and was at that impressionable age i loved my parents but it was not the same i had an interest shooting and fishing and old sam shared this with me now there was no one, they found him lying in the woods with his gun in his hands i suppose its the way he would of wanted to go he never returned up at home one day and his wife notified the owners who sent a party to look for him They buried old SAM at Halford over looking the water fall he lies in an unmarked grave even i found it hard to find but we had so many things to share in the short time we had together he was a wonderful man and a good tutor and i am very grateful for all he did for me he was from the old school a good keeper and loved nature. well a bit more latter

In reply to Post #982
Hi pete
thank you for sharing some of the stories with us, i will read the whole thread when i get chance... the mushrooms i was on about were infact the normal varieties, non haluciagenic,, lol,, so any info on chicken of the woods or edible mushrooms would be appreciated...

In reply to Post #983
hi davey ill see what i can do in the next few days not one of my strongest subjects but ill have a go