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In reply to Post #509
Angling publication Articles
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In reply to Post #508
thanks dave i know theres a lot more to come the picture of the lake with the rods out was acton burnell years ago
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In reply to Post #507
as requested by Pete,just a few of his pictures from the old days.no doubt he will put names to places.
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In reply to Post #506
It`s a pleasure knowing you and reading your storys,my old mate.keep at it and dont let anyone knock you down.
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In reply to Post #503
IT WENT FROM ONE EXTREME TO THE OTHER A LOVELY SUMMER, ONE FUNNY INCIDENT COMES TO MIND ALTHOUGHT AT THE TIME IT WAS QUITE SERIOUS. MY SELF AND MY BROTHER INLAW HAD BEEN UP THE HILLS SHOOTING A FEW RABBITS WHEN OUT THE BLUE THERE WAS AN ALMIGHTY EXPLOSION AND FLAMES SHOT UP IN THE AIR AT LEAST TWENTY FEET THE HILL WAS ALIGHT IN MINUTES BLOODY HELL DID WE RUN IT WAS JUMPING TO ONE TREE TO THE OTHER WE DID NOT THINK WE WOULD GET AWAY FROM THERE. IT WAS ALIGHT FOR THREE WEEKS WE WOULD GET UP IN THE MORNING AND THE SKY WOULD BE BLACK WITH SMOKE THE ARMY WERE THERE AND SO TO WAS THE FIRE BRIGADE THEY HAD NO WATER AND HAD TO PUT PUMPS IN STAGES UP THE MOUNTAIN AND PUMP WATER FROM THE BROOK, I REALLY FELT SORRY FOR THE ARMY CHAPS AS THE SGT WOULD SHOUT AT THEM AND MAKE THEM RUN UP THE MOUNTAIN HAVE A QUICK BEAT AT THE FLAMES THEN MAKE A HASTY RETREAT. AS I SAID IT WENT ON FOR THREE WEEKS THE CAUSE WAS SOME SILLY ARSE HAS PUT A CANDLE IN A JAR FILLED WITH PARIFIN WHEN IT BURNED DOWN IT JUST EGNITED. WELL MY WIFE AND MYSELF WERE OFFERED A FLAT BACK IN THE VILLAGE OF MY BIRTH AND MOVED BACK IN 1963 IT WAS REALLY THEN THAT MY ANGLING TOOK OFF I MET MY LIFE TIME FISHING PARTNER GRAHAM. WHO LIVED IN THE FLAT ARROUND THE CORNER FROM MINE I WAS TWENTY ONE YEARS OLD. I AM AFRAID GRAY AND MYSELF GOT OFF TO RATHER A BAD START HE CAME ARROUND ONE NIGHT AND SAID THAT I HAD A BAD REPUTATION AND HAD BEEN TOLD NOT TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH ME. WHAT COULD I SAY IT DOES FOLLOW YOU ARROUND. I SAID ITS UP TO YOU THEN MATE WE NEVER LOOKED BACK WE HAVE FISHED AND SHOT TOGETHER FOR 47 YEARS HE WAS A VERY LIKE MINDED PERSON AND I SOON FOUND OUT HE WOULD STAND NO MESSING AND COULD REALY STICK UP, FOR HIMSELF. WE WOULD BE UP EARLY MOST WEEK ENDS AND AWAY FISHING ON THE RIVER GRAY HAD AN A35 VAN WHICH WAS VERY HANDY AND WE COULD GET OUR TACKLE IN WITH EASE. WE WOULD TRY TO DIG WASPS NESTS OUT AND USE THE GRUBS FOR OUR CHUB FISHING I WELL REMBER ONE EVENING AT DARK GOING TO THIS WASPS NEST AND PUTTING A LITTLE BIT OFF SNUFF IN THE HOLE TO KILL THE WASPS THEN COVERING IT UP SO THEY COULD NOT GET OUT. GOING BACK THE NEXT MORNING TO COLLECT OUR PRIZE WE PUT OUR SPADES IN THE BLOODY THINGS WERE NOT DEAD THEY CAME OUT LIKE A CLOUD DID WE RUN STUNG ALL OVER WE WERE COVERED COR DID IT HURT I CAN SEE GRAHAMS WIFE NOW RUBBING CALOMINE LOCTION ALL OVER THESE STINGS WASP GRUBS WERE BRILL FOR CHUB FISHING BUT I CAN TELL YOU WE WERE VERY CARFULL HOW WE COLLECTED THEM FROM THEN ON MOE TO FOLLOW
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In reply to Post #503
hard work on the sites mate. ive done my bit and the old aches are like battle scars 
great stuff Pete... keep it up, fella 
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Message Suppressed by Forum Moderator.
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In reply to Post #502
ill carry on as not much on today
i was only 20 years old and still working for boswells i worked with an old irish chap called george if any tunneling was wanted they sent for george and my self we would tunnel under main roads to put sewer pipes in we would be thirty ft down and used pneumatic air drills to cut our way through the clay or gravel what ever it may be. we would sh oar up the roof and sides as we went we put railway lines down and used a truck which we filled with the clay pushing it back out side were another labourer filled a bucket which was then pulled up with a crane some times it took weeks to make our way through you would work bare backed as it could become quite hot down there it was a dirty job you had no helmets to wear then to protect your head. old george was a very funny chap and we were sitting down there one day having our dinner when i asked him what he did in ireland before he came to our country a grave digger he said not very well paid thought i would dig the grave with another chap and fill it in latter, do you know pete we buried a solicitor and twelve moths latter his wife died so we had to dig the grave open again to put his wife in well we got to the coffin and my mate said do you think he would mind if we had a peep at him well we got the lid off and what a surprise we had when we put him ,in there he was clean shaven now he had a beard, half way down his chest. i fell about laughing i really did not no if to believe him but such was the Irish sense of humor you got working with this man he became a great friend and we worked together for many years it was good pay but still hard work, things were still hard but they were improving. we managed to buy a small tele a bush if i remember right i think we could only get BBC my father in law would watch it for hours i am sure he thought everything he watched was real bless him but we had a great relation ship and went every where together, by this time i was getting on well with the locals i had been accepted into the community and was made darts captain of the crown and sceptre pub team. we had some great times playing all the local teams around the area . you had got to see to believe the opposing team would come down from the hills wearing trousers tied up with binder twine for a belt and wearing wellington boots long hair and trilbys they were real ruff diamonds but had hearts as good as gold i got on real well with them more to follow
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In reply to Post #501
we were desperate for money and i was glad to go back to work it was the end of march, The frost had penerated two ft into the ground so it was quite hard going on the building site. my job at the time was banks man working with a digger we were running water mains to the new houses that had been built, i had only been back two days when i had a rather unpleasant experience we had to pull the copper main up a pipe into the house now for the laugh not funny at the time, i got my arm down the pipe to pull the half inch copper mains up into the kitchen area and got bloody stuck i could not get my arm out the more i tried the worse it got my mate tried to pull me but i was very stuck indeed my arm had started to swell and the top of the pipe was cutting into my arm by this time there was about twenty of the building staff all trying different methods to get me out. there was one big old labourer called bunny red dont worry pete ill get you out he gave my arm one big yank bloody hell did it hurt and still it would not come out. six hours latter ambulance fire brigade i was still stuck and in great pain. they but boards in front of my face and drilled away the concrete floor it took eight hours to get me out of that pipe my arm was black and blue there was no health and safety in those days you just got on with your job and said nowt no time off work sick, you could not afford to and i was back next day doing the same job but a bit more careful where i put my arm it was hard graft, i ended up that summer labouring on a gang of six brick layers it was a killer you had to carry all the bricks in a hod on your shoulder up the ladders i think if i remember right it was twelve bricks at a time. it was hot and thirsty work and to keep six brickies going, really took some doing. but i had a family to support a wife son and my inlaws by then my young brother inlaw was also working so that also helped the family income i am afraid there was no fishing only hard work six days a week . the money i earned with the brick layers was quite good so we managed to buy a few luxuries things had started to improve . by the time sunday came around i would be completely knackered but still had jobs to do arround the house i suppose you could say i worked seven days a week no fishing or shooting just boring work but to survive its what you did, more to follow
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In reply to Post #500
1962 was a real eye opener for myself it started to snow on boxing day and did it snow . we could not get out in the morning not even open the door it was at least six foot deep we had to get onto the porch roof from the bedroom window and myself and my young brother inlaw dropped into the snow and cleared it with our hands to get the door open it kept snowing for the next few days we were completely cut off there were drifts 20 ft deep and then it froze we could walk over five bar gates it was terrible, we managed to get to the coal shed the problem was how long it would last we did now have electricity but that was off for some time as the lines came down. food was another problem to give you some idea how long it lasted i never went back to work for ten weeks the main road was completely blocked. we did manage to get at last to the village shop with difficulty. but they only had limited stocks. in the end they flew food in to the shop by helicopter we managed to get to the village pub but that to soon run dry to. we started to get desperate for fuel for the fire as the coal was going down at an alarming rate so we had to cut a tree down the snow was to my waist we put brown, paper under our cloths to insulate us and keep us warm but the tree did keep us in fuel for the rest of the winter. we had no money as i was not earning and my father in law could not get to the post office for his pension so i managed to walk to minsterley which was around seven miles away and tried to get a job as a drivers mate at minsterley creamery helping the driver if he got stuck in the drifts while fetching the milk from the surrounding farms and this is how we survived in that awful weather of 1962 it was hard we were still getting the water from the well it did not freeze up that was another job we did dailey i did manage to go out with the gun and shoot a few rabbits but they were struggling as well for food it froze pigeon by the dozen to the ground killing them in the hundreds i used to go and pick them up no good to eat no meat on them they just starved to death it was pitifull to see. eventualy they got the big american snow blowers to us and made a way out but you still had to walk every where i have never seen a snow like that since. but things are different today more shops . but then you survived the best was you could i know this has nothing to do with fishing i am just trying to explain how it was all those years ago more to come
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In reply to Post #499
i well remember when we had electricity for the first time . it was absolutely marvelous they thought it was heaven another thing we had to do in summer was pick the whim berries there was a lot of money to be made out of this tiny fruit. i would go up the hill with a basket and pick 14 pounds a day , my mother in law made quite a lot of money selling them in the market no good taking the wife she would sit down and eat more than she picked, it was one way of making a bit extra money. the general foreman who was my boss had a bungalow not far from our house and employed myself and a plasterer to pebble dash the front of his bungalow and then paint it white well he had a little stream that went through the bottom of his garden it was full of trout around a pound. in the dinner hour i would be in that stream trousers rolled up and tickle the trout they would hide under the overhanging rocks at the side of the stream i would slide my hand under there belly's and slowly move my hand up and down its belly then with one swift movement out they came thrown up the bank. the plasterer loved them i would catch as many as ten a day doing this. we were there about two weeks when the boss said you like a bit of fishing don't you pete yes said i. bring the rod down and have a go he said well we nearly fell about laughing i really could not say i already had caught them. i would probably had the sack he realy loved those old trout but thats the way i was anything for a meal more to come latter
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In reply to Post #493
i was living in hill billy country one leg shorter then the other. i could not believe my inlaws had no water i really thought i had been hard done by but to live like they had was mega hard. we had to carry the water from a well daily which was a good quarter of a mile away no electricity only oil lamps ,all cooking done on the old fire stove. i had to get another job as i could not carry on with the engineering company as i had no way of traveling as the transport was not very good in those days i think looking back two buses a day to shrewsbury. i went to work for a building firm called Boswells they ran a bus picking up local labour to their building sites in shrewsbury and surrounding areas i had a six mile walk every morning to catch the buss all down hill i must say but hard going back at night. the money was not that good but it paid the bills it was hard work and by the time you got back at night you were completely buggered but you would then have other things to do like cutting fire wood fetching water they were certainly hard times, all their washing was done in a big old boiler in the shed every tuesday you would light the wood under the boiler which would heat the water it was a mega job making sure they had a stock of wood for the weekly wash. i was growing up and taking my responsibilities serious. there was one problem the locals would not except me that happened in those days it was a very close knit community and i was an outsider if i went to the pub they would not leave me alone on the way to work was the same i had got to get their respect some how it was xmas 1960 when my brother in law came to stay from his home in london what a man he was hard as nails and we got on like a house on fire hen took me to the local pub for a few drinks on xmas eve every time he brought me a pint the land lord would take it from me and say i dont want you in my pub, well my brother law twigged what was happening and splattered the landlord all over the bar cor what a fight just like out of the films a real hill billy fight bloody hell was he hard even the policeman who was in there went flying out of his seat that really did not bother me as he had been picking on me since i had arrived on the scene the pub was a wreck chairs broken glass everywhere i thought i was hard but not like them i think they actually enjoyed it more to come latter
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In reply to Post #1000
would just like say what a great post this is, spent best part of two hours reading it all an cant wait for more! Best thing i read in a long time an i too believe it would make a brilliant book.. i do hope pete finds someone to help him do this!!!
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In reply to Post #496
ime sure a lot of people would oblige you pet..... sorry pete  spelling mistake........ and would gladly give you a hand on getting started and on your way to getting something published
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In reply to Post #492
thanks both for the kind remarks. as you know i did not like school so thats the spelling out of the window but about a book i have had a few pm suggesting just that ken asked me if i had thought about putting it in book form, as i said to him i would not no where to start whether there is anyone on here that has experence of writing books or even how to do it i would like to know thanks pete
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