Bob Southwell Rods

[JerryC]

Just noticed on FM that Felicity Southwell, Grand daughter of Bob and daughter of Dave, is in the process of selling her father's collection of Bob's rods.

http://www.fishingmagic.com/forums/coar ... hwell.html

[Nobby]

I wonder how many PMs she's had already?

[Vagabond]

I have a few rods of Bob Southwell cane - he used to make cane blanks for J B Walker of Hythe (no relation to Dick although JBW supplied Dick with blanks also) before Bob started to supply James of West Ealing with Mk4 and Mk4 Avon blanks.

During the 1950s and 60s I made several rods up from JBW/Southwell blanks. Over 60 years later, I am still using them (they get re-ringed, re-whipped and revarnished every 25 years )

[Nobby]

Southwell supplying J B Walker...are you sure?


Because it's the first I've ever heard of it.


And since I'm in contact with half of his employees, I would have expected to have heard of this before.....


JB Walker did indeed claim to have supplied Walker ( R ) with blanks, apparently unchallenged, yet nowhere does Walker acknowledge this apart from the letter so often reproduced by J B Walker in their catologues.


J B had his own milling machines, worked to their death apparently, one being taken on , and shipped to Scotland when he retired , where it was found to be completely worn out. Meanwhile, 'Bob' Southwell had retired years and years before....




http://www.davidnorwich.com/WHYWEDOIT.htm

[Nailbourne]

Having bought all my cane rods (in kit form) from J.B.Walker, maybe I can make a small input.

J.B.Walker, his brother, and Mr Mallett were the only people I ever met 'behind the counter' at the shop , and were the nicest men one could hope to meet - typical of many of the tackle-dealers of those days. The shop was usually busy (being on the coast, they had a large sea-fishing clientele), and I asked JB how they found the time to make up the blanks! He replied that most were made over the winter when trade was a bit slack.

I remember the letter printed in their catalogues, but also have in front of me a copy of 'Still-water Angling', the 1976 edition. Concluding the rod section in the original 'Tackle' chapter, RW clearly states '...and some of the best I have seen comes from James of West Ealing, and Walker, of Hythe in Kent.'

This does not prove that they supplied RW with blanks but, together with the aforementioned letter, does indicate that he had a close relationship with the firm. In those days, a trip from Hitchin to Hythe would have been quite a lengthy journey, without motorways and the Dartford crossing.

I hardly think the letter was a forgery, and JBW must have been very proud to have received it. No wonder they printed it in their catalogues.

[Nobby]

Yes, that's a good point. Perhaps RW felt that having given his blessing to James, he owed it to them not to promote another company, directly or otherwise?

Interesting, is it not?, that the journey from Bedfordshire to Hythe, presuming a journey South of the Thames, would take one so close to Croydon........not so far from the top of Brixton Hill, down the A23 through Streatham, South Norwood and into Croydon. Station Road would have come up just on the left after entering the town......


I wonder if JB Walker's business was cyclical? I can imagine people making up their rod kits in the Winter months, or perhaps during the closed season....surely many were bought as Christmas presents? If he had a 'rush' on, he's just as likely as others to go to another maker to suppy a few blanks quickly.....


I don't totally disbelieve that Southwell supplied JB Walker, only that it was ever more than in irregular, emergency, type of thing.

I have it on good authority that this sort of inter-rod maker dealing went on frequently.

[Nailbourne]

I think RW would have driven straight through London, or through the Blackwall Tunnel, then down the A20, turning off to Hythe!

Another example of J.B.Walker's customer service - I needed some components quickly (don't teenagers always!), so I phoned them up and they put them on the next Hythe-Canterbury bus! I met the bus at the bus station an hour or so later, and paid when next I visited! You wouldn't get that today.

[Nobby]

Marvellous! I didn't know one could once have done that. The days of Clippies, I suppose.


In a time when few of us owned a car that's a brilliant idea...even the once great Post Office couldn't have matched that!

[Vagabond]

JB Walker did indeed claim to have supplied Walker ( R ) with blanks, apparently unchallenged, yet nowhere does Walker acknowledge this

Eh ??


May I quote from "Rod Building for Amateurs" ?

"...I am indebted to.......and above all to Mr J. B. Walker, of Hythe, supplier of rod-building materials. Nothing I have asked of him has ever been too much trouble."

This book was written by Dick Walker, and published in 1952 so is very likely to have been written before the capture of Ravioli in September 1952

...and here's one for the conspiracy theorists - the publisher was Belfield and Bushell of 295 Cheriton Road, Folkestone.

...so maybe JBW had some input into the book - maybe advising on a publisher or acting as a part sponsor - the back page carries an advert for JBW at their then address of 4B Prospect Road, Hythe (that was before they moved to Marine Walk Street)

I can certainly vouch for the helpfulness of JBW In 1949 I was an impecunious schoolboy of 15, and cycled to Hythe (120 mile round trip - never mind Dick driving from Hitchin !) to save paying cartage. I went to buy Tonkin for splitting, plus fittings to make up a split-bamboo light spinning rod. Got given tea, plenty of good advice, and materials beyond the value of my meagre savings.

It was the only rod I ever tried to build from scratch. Succeeded in the end, but t'was much more difficult than I had bargained for. Left school the next year, and then could afford to buy split-bamboo blanks - as I understood it, some of the blanks came from Bob Southwell

[Vagabond]

...and another quote, this time from "Drop me a Line"

"If you are getting the split cane from J B Walker, tell him you want it to the same dimensions as he supplied to me...."

Dick Walker's second letter to Maurice Ingham.

In fact Dick makes numerous references to JBW throughout DMAL - recommended reading for traditionalists !