Norman Woodward, Leicester

Do you know of a good traditional fishing tackle shop, past and present.
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AshbyCut
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Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by AshbyCut »

My latest rod acquisition has a retailers label attached bearing the details :-

Norman Woodward
Braunstone Gate
Leicester
Tel 22353

From the phone number I'd guess late '60's or 1970's.

Does anyone recall this shop ?
"Beside the water I discovered (or maybe rediscovered) the quiet. The sort of quiet that allows one to be woven into the tapestry of nature instead of merely standing next to it." Estaban.

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Mark
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Re: Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by Mark »

I know the road AC but can't remember the shop, perhaps it was gone before my time.
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AndyPop
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Re: Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by AndyPop »

I have just received a call from Norman Woodward's son-in-law looking for a rod made or retailed by Norman. It is needed as a present for Norman's daughter for a wedding anniversary. Can anyone help out?
"Carpe Diem" does not mean "fish of the day."

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Swythyn Troutbeck
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Re: Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by Swythyn Troutbeck »

AshbyCut wrote:My latest rod acquisition has a retailers label attached bearing the details :-

Norman Woodward
Braunstone Gate
Leicester
Tel 22353

From the phone number I'd guess late '60's or 1970's.

Does anyone recall this shop ?

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's where my Dad bought me my very first rod and reel....and I still have both.

Just down the street from Lewis's, the shop was really a seed merchants. It was a sort of long and narrow corridor with the fishing tackle at the very end. You'd hardly think it was a tackle shop at all from the outside.

Bless Mr.Woodward for dissuading my Dad from getting me a short fibre-glass fishing rod just like all the other lads. He sold him a 9ft rod made out of ordinary garden cane but with a proper cork handle and fibre-glass top. The reel was a pressed alloy Easton Sun and he equipped it with "Eclipse" silk running line off a card with a quill float and two packets of hooks to nylon size 14 and 16.

Halcyon days....

Troutbeck
When I'm not fishin' I'm fettlin'

AndyFrance

Re: Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by AndyFrance »

Used to buy my bait from Woodwards on the way to fish the "straights", the stretch of canal just down the road from the shop. If you did not get there early, you could not get a swim. It was one of the premiere fishing venues in those days with the power station pumping hot water into the canal. You could stand on the canal bridges and see anglers as far as the eye could see. Happy days.

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Harry H
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Re: Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by Harry H »

He is in the phone book from 1958-82 :Hat:
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Harry H
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Re: Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by Harry H »

Saw a splitcane cane rod of his yesterday in a local antique shop, looked like a Salmon spinning rod,agate rings throughout no labels just inscription in ink,looked a quality build.
There are three things that improve with age: wine, friendship and water sense, and there's no short cut.
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Muscavado
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Re: Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by Muscavado »

Gentlemen,

Today I picked up a nice Glass Swingtip rod with the following inscription ;

Wal Fosberry......Marlow Downes Swing Tip Rod.....Developed by Norman Woodward, Braunstone Gate, Leicester

Does anyone know anything about Wal or why the rod was "developed" by Norman?

In the meantime, I'm going to fire off an email to Roy Marlow.

John

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Burnie
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Re: Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by Burnie »

Swythyn Troutbeck wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2013 5:47 pm
AshbyCut wrote:My latest rod acquisition has a retailers label attached bearing the details :-

Norman Woodward
Braunstone Gate
Leicester
Tel 22353

From the phone number I'd guess late '60's or 1970's.

Does anyone recall this shop ?

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's where my Dad bought me my very first rod and reel....and I still have both.

Just down the street from Lewis's, the shop was really a seed merchants. It was a sort of long and narrow corridor with the fishing tackle at the very end. You'd hardly think it was a tackle shop at all from the outside.

Bless Mr.Woodward for dissuading my Dad from getting me a short fibre-glass fishing rod just like all the other lads. He sold him a 9ft rod made out of ordinary garden cane but with a proper cork handle and fibre-glass top. The reel was a pressed alloy Easton Sun and he equipped it with "Eclipse" silk running line off a card with a quill float and two packets of hooks to nylon size 14 and 16.

Halcyon days....

Troutbeck
I think this shop may have been Pratts at 41 Humberstone Gate, they also had a store on the East Park Road. nb it became John Adams(Ironmongers)in 1971

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Swythyn Troutbeck
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Re: Norman Woodward, Leicester

Post by Swythyn Troutbeck »

Absolutely right, Burnie, my memory was tricking me but now I see the place quite clearly in my mind's eye. There was another odd tackle supplier in Leicester. On one side of the market place up near the Corn Exchange was a fine china and household ware shop at the back of which was a small counter dedicated to fly fishing. I bought my first cane fly rod there in a sale...a Forshaw's Palace Five which is still as bright as a button and hasn't budged a millimeter despite around fifty years of careful use. I can't remember the name of the shop, do you by any chance?

Troutbeck :Hat:
When I'm not fishin' I'm fettlin'

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