Once upon a time, people made things with their hands: beautiful cane fishing rods and exotic salmon flies. Hardy’s did this the best and were loved the world over. Adored by royalty, maharajas, and film stars, they employed an army of craftsmen, made their movies, and brimmed confidently. But globalization means their heyday has long gone. Do we mourn the loss of the handmade? Could it reflect a deeper need in our everyday life? A documentary by Andy Heathcote and Heike Bachelier celebrates quality, the longevity of the craftsman’s hand, and the essence of angling.
PB’s Doctor Who Tardis Time Travel British Fishing Tackle Factories Bucket List
1) The Hardy factory in Alnwick in its pre-World War I or 1920 s and ’30s pre-World War 2 heyday.
2) The same of that of S. Allcock of Redditch (eventually bought by Shakespeare in the 1960s, with the inevitable result) .
3) I saw it several times in the mid to late 1970s, the nothing short of fabulous Victorian time capsule works of Partridge Hooks on an urban hillslope named Mount Pleasant in Redditch in the Midlands of England. It had a cane rod shop too, One of its makers was Tom Moran. Partridge’s owner, Alan Bramley, a good pal of mine, and I were talking about turning it into a working museum, indeed creating a larger British Angling Museum in Redditch, a needle-making town that once had many big and small name fishing hook and tackle manufacturers . We so very nearly did, until the British multi-business businessman who we had found to back the project by the early 1980s invested his money elsewhere.