Tag Archives: shop

Sweets of Usk

08 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in General fishing, Tackle

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A person who is born in the town of Usk or has lived there for  forty years or more can qualify as a ‘Usk butterfly’. The butterfly symbol was used by Usk craftsmen who created Japanned finished wares, it distinguished their work from nearby Pontypool who created similar work. Last week I was fortunate enough to meet a Usk butterfly for the first time…

Thursday I found myself driving to South Wales with fellow photographer, angler and friend, Nick Moore to cover the stills for an advertising campaign. We were staying at the famous Gliffaes County Hotel that sits on a rocky outcrop in the Usk valley. The hotel is very much of the arts and crafts Edwardian style, and mainly caters for the brown trout, sewin and salmon fisher. As anglers we were both quite frustrated by the prospect of staying at this hotel in earshot of the river Usk, unable to fish, only to work! Ever an optimist I packed a spinning rod, reel and waders hoping that I could grab an hour before or after dinner and winkle out a salmon. The previous day I was talking to John Andrews of Acadia about our predicament and his reply was ‘do yourself a favour and drop into Sweets of Usk…’ I had heard of this old style tackle shop but had never been there so during our drive up to Wales I mentioned this to Nick and the possibility of a detour to visit the tackle shop, after a short conversation a decision was made and we took the turning to the town of Usk. On arrival we found a tiny wooden-clad shop front with the glass panelled door covered in various notes and signs obscuring what was hidden within, to be honest we thought the shop was closed. On close inspection I could see the smiling face of a well dressed lady who was reaching for the locked door, before long we had entered into another world.

When we first stepped inside Sweets we were overwhelmed at the sheer array of things to look at, there were  trays of hand-tied flies, old books, stacked boxes, photographs old and new, wooden carved salmon, tweed jackets, bags, cane and carbon rods, we were struggling to know what was for sale and what items were on display for sentimental reasons. The air smelt of wax and old books, the sun had just come out and shafts of light shone through the gaps in the glass illuminating the shop in dappled light, the atmosphere was thick and there stood behind the wooden counter our host with her infectious laugh and sweet smile. Nick and myself were actually quite dumb struck like a couple of  school boys, but we were soon put at ease with Mrs Williams offer of tea and stories that were attached to every object that we pointed out. We felt that we had entered someones front room for the first time and with that in mind turned down the offer of tea for we felt that we were intruding. Instead we turned our attention back to the shop, its history and the content. I spotted a delicate looking cane trout rod that turned out to be a Harry Powell rod who originally opened the shop in the 1930’s and was told that “Harry’s rod would never be sold, it is far too special.”  Mrs Williams told us about Lionel Sweet who took over the shop from Harry Powell and of his legendary fly casting skills (in 1953 he became the Casting Champion of Europe which he held for twenty years)  while his wife Molly hand-tied the flies in the shop. In the early 1960’s Mrs Williams started work in the shop after her parents were looking to find her some temporary work, then in the 1970’s she took over the shop with her now husband, Mike. Over forty years on Mrs Williams, the Usk Butterfly continues to offer her time and hospitality that is warm and genuine,  in truth we felt after an hour that we should leave but I think she enjoyed our visit as much as we were. The shop is very much orientated to fishing the Usk which is literally a stones throw from the shop. I spotted a cupboard of boxes with labels from bygone Redditch tackle firms, stacked in a higgledy-piggledy manner. From this cupboard Mrs Williams showed me some of the contents including some floats,  “I have a few floats for the boys in the village, you have to get them started somehow,” it was almost as if this was a rite of passage, from float to fly. By five o’clock we had to leave, we could have stayed longer as I know that Mrs Williams  had many more stories to share, time was not an issue in this shop, it looked like it had stopped many decades ago, but we had to move on and step back into 2014. A meeting had been laid on for us to discuss the photo-shoot that was to take place on the following day, the contrast was quite extreme.

In hindsight there is a slight sadness about this shop as you realise it won’t be around forever. When Mrs Williams locks the door for the final time I can’t see this business being passed on or sold as it stands, the vintage tackle dealers and auction houses  may buy up the contents and the shop will be lost. The stock is probably worth very little but some of the historic photographs and wood carving are worth considerably more, but as a collection under one roof it is priceless. On a historical and social level Sweets is a very rare place to discover. For now it still stands as a business supplying the Usk fishermen with flies, spinners and line, it is a very honest place and certainly not a parody or museum.  For anyone who remembers fishing tackle shops that precede the 1980’s when the owners were normally a husband and wife duo, this is a place you have to visit and spend a few pounds. Sweets is a tackle shop that survives where many others were lost to  Angling Centres with departments run by ‘experts’. My experience in Sweets reminded me how far we have come as a country over the last thirty years, we seem to be in a big hurry. Sweets is a real lesson in customer care and understated knowledge, an antidote to modern shopping. This little tackle shop is in no rush, run by a lady who has  time for anyone who steps through the door, I’m just looking to find an excuse to go back soon, this time though I will accept the offer of  “a nice cup of tea with welsh water” as Mrs William would like to say.

Mrs Williams
Hand tied
Mrs Williams
Mrs Williams & Nick
A customers discarded waders!
Sweets Tackle shop Usk

 

61 Pall Mall.

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Tackle

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Twenty or so years ago I walked into 61 Pall Mall and was addressed as “Sir” quite an achievement for me at that time as I was a scruffy looking art student dressed in ripped jeans and a leather biker jacket. The man who addressed me looked more like an undertaker rather than the normal tweed clad (this is how you are supposed to dress like in the countryside young man, don’t you know) shop assistant. I was addressed with respect and asked no awkward questions regarding my request, a Hardy waxed wading jacket. A suitable jacket was found, wrapped and paid for with a credit card that was on the brink of letting me down, those two dreaded words ‘card declined’ thankfully didn’t flash up and I marched triumphantly out of Hardys with a waxed jacket. I was not going to wear this on the chalk streams of southern England but in the shady bars and night clubs of Shoreditch, East London. One day I would wear it on the Itchen or Nadder but until then I was to make my rural fashion statement in the Vale of Hoxton!

Soon after Hardy’s of number 61 Pall Mall closed down, my wading jacket still hangs in the basement and has since been blessed on the rivers banks of southern England for brown trout and Scotland in search of salmon. Looking back now I never thought that 61 Pall Mall was an era on the brink of extinction, I thought this establishment was to go on for ever, sadly it didn’t. If I had known of its impending demise I would have spent more time in there.

For those who remembers the wooden panelled shop and its calm atmosphere only broken by the occasional New York accent of an excited over seas visitor, you may also remember the changing faces of the shop window…

Old fishing tackle shops…

16 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by in Tackle

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Penfolds of Cuckfield in West Sussex was my place of wonder towards the end of the late seventies and throughout the eighties. After an up hill bike ride of about four miles I arrived, breathless and excited, just as if I was going fishing.

As I recall the front of the shop would have been no more than ten feet wide including the entrance. The exterior was painted gloss black with a hand painted sign, ‘Penfolds’. The window was covered in a layer of yellow celluloid gel to protect the display of angling items and packaging from the effects of the sun.

To enter, a slightly stiff door had to be given a hard push to engage a brass bell, which would in turn alert the waiting staff. Once through the door a waft of maggots, waxed canvas and old oak drawers filled my senses (long before the smells of tutti fruiti boillies and halibut pellets). I was immediately thrown into a magical world of fishing tackle, spools of Perlon, rows of floats, shelves stacked high with boxes of reels, piles of Efgecco bait boxes in the corner, spilling out of a large cardboard box and small wooden drawers filled with hidden angling paraphernalia.

The shop, like the frontage was about ten feet wide with a counter running all the way along the left hand side to the rear, the interior was always quite dark even on a bright summers day. The far end was dedicated to shooting and equestrian related items, this enhanced the smell with fresh cut leather and ointments. Along the narrow corridor on the right was a selection of wall mounted display cabinets full of floats ordered into categories; balsa’s, porcupine quills, waggler’s, chubbers, wind beaters, avon’s and lignum sticks produced by makers such as Ultra and Middy.  Between the float displays were racks of rods, not the huge selections that you would expect in a modern tackle shop but no more than about twenty rods from thick glass float rods to the ultra thin and expensive new carbon creations.

One Saturday morning I was taken by my father who used to sea fish, (he had a boat on Brighton beach in the 1950’s) where he purchased my first new rod for my tenth birthday, a 11ft Shakespeare ‘Strike’ float rod, made of glass and as thick as a rolling-pin! I think this was the only time I ever ventured in the shop with an adult; Penfold’s was strictly a place for myself and my angling peers.

The long counter was made of a dark hardwood with a glass top that allowed a display of angling accessories, more floats, swim feeders, weights, pike gaff’s and scales.  The custodians stood behind the counter framed by a montage of more tackle including cheap penknife’s hanging from display cards, canvas fishing bags and keep nets dangling from the ceiling. The elderly grey haired couple both dressed in sandy brown shop overalls would stand to attention awaiting my meagre order of bits and bobs.

Also behind the counter, on the wall was a series of matching hardwood drawers, none of which were labelled but if a request for something unusual, a Mitchell bail arm spring or a spare rod ring, a bee-line would be made to the correct drawer and the said item would be found and placed on the counter. If the item was correct then it would be tallied up with a pencil on a brown paper bag. Many times I would have to put items back as the tally became too much for my limited pocket-money.

There were bigger, more ‘modern’ angling shops near by but as a shy youngster and novice angler, Penfolds was the place to go for good friendly advice.

Recently I drove down the high street and to my surprise Penfold’s still exists on the opposite side of the street in a larger premises that is now just a country and equestrian clothes shop, the Penfold’s of old has all but gone.