The Wandle
Feb 28th, 2008 by Theo
The River Wandle has a long and illustrious history.
Until the end of the 19th century it was seen as one of the world’s great chalkstreams. Nelson loved the river so much that he bought an estate at Merton for his mistress Emma Hamilton, and fished the Wandle (with his good arm) until his death at Trafalgar.
William Morris stocked his stretch of the river with perch from the upper Thames, so that he’d never be far from his favourite fishy delicacy.
And between 1868 and 1881, Frederic Halford learned the art of dry fly fishing for finicky clear-water trout from the Wandle Valley locals - before taking the Carshalton Dodge away with him as a slightly-too-serious sporting code to the Test, Itchen and all points west. But by the 1960s, the river had been engulfed by the urban sprawl of South London, and was officially classified as a sewer.
Now, the Wandle is on its way back as a fishery. If you have a valid Environment Agency rod licence the river offers miles of free fishing for barbel, chub, carp, roach, dace, and even the descendants of William Morris’ perch, both upstream and downstream from the National Trust’s Morden Hall Park where fishing is restricted to members of the Morden Hall Park Angling Club.
Thanks to the Wandle Trust’s Trout in the Classroom project, trout are thriving too (though catching one on a traditional dry fly is still very far from guaranteed!)
And the press has noticed. Click on these links to follow the river’s story as it runs through a new century – and a new age for this unique urban chalkstream.
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