Wallness Social Angling Society Spastics Effort 1962

Like many old angling clubs the long lived but now defunct Wallness Social Angling Society was based in a pub, the Wallness Tavern, Wallness Lane, Salford (less than 200 yards away from the current Salford Friendly Anglers HQ).

The Wallness Social Angling Society featured regularly in local angling club matches and are mentioned in many of our clubs historical documents. Sadly the pub was demolished in 2012.

As we have been digitising our Societies records we came accros this amazing poster of a fishing match which the Wallness Social Angling Society organised in 1962 on the Macclesfield Canal at Higher Poynton – a charity match in aid of the Manchester and District Spastics Society.

Macclesfield Canal Angling Championship 1962 Poster

Macclesfield Canal Angling Championship 1962 Poster

The Spastics Society still exists under its current guise of the charity Scope.

The County Palatine Angling Association amalgamated/morphed into the Northern Anglers Association during the early 1970s – and N.A.A. still own the fishing rights on the Macclesfield Canal between Marple and Macclesfield.

However the canal at Higher Poynton is no longer suitable for match fishing as it is extensively used for the mooring of narrowboats.

As we searched through our records – we also came across the financial breakdown of the match, the list of angling clubs and individuals who took part in the match, and the companies who sponsored the prizes. A great find.

Financial record of the Macclesfield Canal Angling Championship 1962

Financial record of the Macclesfield Canal Angling Championship 1962

The match raised a total of £173 for the Manchester and District Spastics Society  – a fantastic effort seeing as though that translates to £3,580 in todays money taking into account inflation.  The £5 winning prize money is now worth £100 in todays money.

This is an amazing record of North West Angling Clubs in 1962  – sadly many of them no longer exist, nor do any of the tackle shops listed who contributed to the prize fund.

Its a shame that there is no record of the result of this match – it would have been great to know the exact length of canal that was pegged out, and what anglers weighed in..

I suspect that the result was pretty poor – we have match records dating back to the 1890s from this section of canal – and anglers back then caught so little that it beggars belief that they went back for more.  Maybe the fishing “out in the country” no matter how bad it was, was a welcome respite from the hellish industrial cities of the North.

Canal Championship Matches used to be quite commonplace in the North West until the mid 1980s….. I can remember taking part in a number of Rochdale Canal Angling Championships (sponsored by the Manchester Evening News and their Angling correspondent Don Bridgewater)  – it could be a bit of fun reviving it.

Wallness front