The Landscape
The area now widely known as Woldale was originally created in the 1760’s when as part of the landscaping of an adjoining country estate, it was decided to re-model a steep valley with a stream running through it, into a private pleasure-ground to compliment the rest of the estate. The project consisted of building two dams to create a pair of ponds, complete with a series of silt traps. The area was then sympathetically landscaped with the planting of mostly Beech and Oak trees on the Northern and Southern sides of the valley.
Cottages were also built for gamekeepers/estate workers, as well as a brick and pantile boathouse on one of the ponds. A domed pump house was also built to pump water from one of the lakes to a farmstead at the top of a nearby hill, using a gravity-fed hydraulic ram.
Over time, the tree-planting matured, and the low-lying area between the ponds also became predominantly wooded.
The ponds and surrounding land were used privately by the landowner’s family during the 1700s and 1800s, with permission reportedly given regularly during the early part of the 1900s for visits by local organisations such as sunday schools and scout groups, as well as welcoming anglers on a day-ticket basis, administered by the on-site gamekeeper.
Maurice Ingham
A local angler, Maurice Ingham was a regular visitor to Woldale and in the late 1940s became increasingly focussed on trying to catch the large carp he was convinced the fishery contained. Ingham knew Woldale well, having visited in his youth with the boy scouts and become enchanted by the place and the large fish he had seen cruising the margins of the lake.
He was however struggling with his quest as he was unable to find suitable tackle with which to fish for carp. Up until that time, most anglers had completely avoided trying to catch carp, believing them to be almost impossible to tempt into a bite and equally difficult to land successfully using the tackle generally available to date.
Drop Me a Line
In autumn 1949 Ingham read two articles in the Fishing Gazette written by a contributor known as ‘Water Rail’ about techniques and tackle for targeting carp. In an attempt to glean more information about how to build a rod suitable for catching carp, he wrote to the editor of the Fishing Gazette asking various questions and requesting that he forward the letter on to the relevant contributor.
The editor carried out this request and the article’s author Richard (Dick) Walker duly responded. Walker was himself exploring new techniques and tackle, using a very technical and scientific approach. He had recently designed and built a prototype of a rod, using a split-cane design, which went on to revolutionise specimen fishing rods for the next couple of decades.
Walker’s response contained a huge amount of technical information to aid Ingham in his design of a new rod, and also in general angling techniques. He also mentioned in this initial response that he had been intending with his friend ‘BB’ (Denys Watkins-Pitchford) to visit a lake near to Walker’s home by the name of Woldale (a name they used jointly in their published correspondence to avoid over-publicising the true location), and asking whether Walker knew of it.
Ingham responded almost immediately with further questions and also providing information about Woldale, inviting Walker to visit it with him. The two exchanged up to 4 letters a month over the following months and became firm friends, culminating with Walker visiting Ingham at his home in July 1950 and the two of them fishing Woldale repeatedly as well as a couple of other nearby fisheries. In a followup letter, immediately after the trip, Dick Walker announced that “Woldale is a fine carp water, and the best I’ve ever fished”.
These early letters between the two anglers continued until February 1951, by which time they had started to include one of Walker’s friends; Denys Watkins-Pitchford (known as ‘BB’). The whole set of letters from 1949 to 1951 were published in full as a book in 1953; Drop Me a Line (Walker & Ingham).
Carp Catchers Club Formation
In June 1951 these three anglers, along with Ingham’s friend John Norman resolved to form ‘The Carp Catchers’ Club’. This was a collective of anglers seeking to further their own and others’ understanding of the skills, techniques and equipment relating to catching carp, as well as to celebrate their own and each others’ catching successes of course.
Other members soon followed, in the form of Jack Smith, Harry Grief, and later Bob Richards, Peter Thomas and Bernard Venables. While members would sometimes meet up and fish together, the club was based around a circular letter as a means of sharing experiences, knowledge and achievements. Membership of the group grew over time, with those known to have been members including:
- Richard (Dick) Walker
- Maurice Ingham
- Denys Watkins-Pitchford (BB) (Walker’s friend)
- John Norman (Ingham’s friend)
- Jack Smith
- Harry Grief (from Dagenham, knew RW)
- Bob Richards
- Peter Thomas (Walker’s friend)
- Bernard Venables
- Fred J Taylor
- Dick Kefford
- Gerry Berth-Jones
The Wold Angling Association
Around the same time, the future use/management of Woldale became uncertain, with the on-site gamekeeper (Mr Duckering) retiring and with there having until now been a heavy reliance on him for overseeing management of the site. Maurice Ingham and a group of like-minded anglers, (including John Norman and Paul Marshall) came together to form a small fishing club (Wold Angling Association), to lease the fishing rights from the estate. The use of the name ‘Woldale’ persisted as a means of avoiding over-publicising the water, and this website continues in that tradition.
The angling club established the upper pond as ‘The Carp Lake’ and the lower pond as ‘The Tench Lake’ and used the pair of cottages overlooking the Tench lake as something of a clubhouse, tending to the previously overgrown gardens, and staying there overnight at weekends and during longer summer sessions.
Carp Catchers Club at Woldale, and the Club’s legacy
The successes of the Carp Catchers Club came thick and fast following it’s formation, with Bob Richards smashing the previous record carp catch, with a fish of 31lb 4oz in October 1951 caught from Redmire Pool, Peter Thomas and Maurice Ingham both breaking the 20lb barrier in 1952, and then in September 1952, Dick Walker caught a huge common carp of 44lb from Redmire Pool. This fish was named ‘Clarissa’ and was transferred to London Zoo, where it survived for a number of years. The record survived even longer, until it was eventually beaten in 1980 (by Chris Yates).
The Carp Catchers Club visited Woldale regularly and it was regarded as their ‘home water’, lending itself well to this, with having two lakes providing differing conditions and angling opportunities, and offering all of the facilities required for longer sessions/socials.
Woldale has never been a place boasting record-breaking size carp, despite being stocked with the same strain of carp as Redmire Pool (it’s peer in terms of carp fishing). Whether that is due to it being considerably further North than Redmire, the Carp Lake having a northerly aspect, the particular composition of the fish stocks, availability of natural food-sources or a combination of these or other factors, no-one is quite sure. But with it’s beautiful surroundings and bountiful stocks of wiley ‘Leney’ carp, members of the Carp Catchers Club spent a great deal of time at Woldale, and it was here where new techniques, tackle and bait were all trialed and the results shared with other members.
The Carp Catchers Club slowly faded away by the late 1950s, but not before it had left an indelible mark on the angling world. Walker, Ingham, Richards et al had begun to demonstrate that catching carp was both possible and rewarding, and started the process of developing tackle and techniques that would make this accessible for any angler, with Walker’s ingenuity in rod-building proving to be a particular breakthrough. The modern day Carp Society is considered by many to be the spiritual successor to the Carp Catchers Club.
Ingham later published his collection of the Club’s circular letters as a book called The Carp Catchers’ Club (1998).
Woldale… to the present day
While the Carp Catchers Club faded away, the Wold Angling Association did not, with the angling club founded by Ingham, Marshall and Norman continuing to manage the fishery, with the guard inevitably changing gradually over the years. One of the most enduring stories from the early years of the Association is of Maurice Ingham’s capture of a 17lb Carp using a WW2 tank aerial as a rod. The story is recounted in detail by Ingham in his book Woldale (first published 1996).
Many well-known anglers have fished Woldale over the years, with some also writing about it in subsequent angling books. See the Hall of Fame page for details of some of the famous faces who have graced the banks, and the Bibliography page for various books that are about, or refer to Woldale.
The group of anglers involved with Woldale has inevitably evolved over the years, as has the group’s name; from Wold Angling Association (until the late 1970s), to the Woldale Syndicate and more recently to Woldale Angling Club. But it is the same organisation, and even today still includes members who fished with Ingham.
Woldale Angling Club members continue to be the careful custodians for the lakes and surrounding land in partnership with the landowner, as well as for the precious angling heritage they represent.
Woldale 