John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
December 3rd 2009
Thank You, Helen!
Tuesday, ten a.m., the 1st December, I regard as something of a landmark in my lifetime's association with bureaucracy. You see, I went to Dragonfly House, Norwich, for an informal chat with Dr. Helen Beardsley of the Environment Agency who is heading up roach research on the Wensum. She's a truly charming young woman who has a genuine passion for roach and who, I like to think, was genuinely interested in what I had to say about my own life with roach on that river. It all seemed something of a dream - and I'll tell you why.
Let's rewind to Bailey's young days when the River Wensum was controlled by the East Suffolk and Norfolk River Board. Anybody wanting to know exactly how bad that organisation was should search out a book called ‘Broadland Tom' written by Tom Cable. It is subtitled, ‘The Trials of a Norfolk Water Bailiff, 1952 - 1976' and it was first published in 1991 by a private company called Reeve. Rarely have the follies of a public organisation been laid so bare as within those pages. And as anglers, back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, we had to suffer the whole range of their shortcomings.
For example, every year a fishermen's meeting was held in Norwich. I can remember at least once this being disbanded because we disgruntled anglers were a little unruly and spoke out of turn. Spoke out of turn! Who was paying their damn wages I remember wondering with all the indignation of a teenager.
When the AWA took over some time in the 70s I guess, things weren't really any better. Once again, the wall of impenetrability between anglers and bureaucracy was stoutly maintained. In short, anglers were rather rough blokes who could, in truth, bugger off with all their complaints and moanings.
Even in the 1980s when the River Wensum was evidently groaning under its persecutions, a meeting with its overlord, Dr. John Wortley, would take months to obtain. And when you were in Dr. John's august presence, your lowly position was made quite apparent to you. These, of course, were the days of the Save the Wensum Campaign...and our burst of fury some of the older readers amongst you will remember. Save the Wensum soon transformed itself into the Norfolk Anglers' Conservation Association and it's just, perhaps, from that moment on that the Water Lords began to take anglers and angling just a little bit more seriously. I stress, though, it's still a little bit.
As far as I'm aware, it wasn't until Simon Johnson took over in Fisheries, over ten years back, that things really began to change. Those of us who were there, will remember out first meeting with Simon when he positively encouraged our memories of how the Wensum had been and our theories of why it had declined. These were great days none of us thought could last.
But, thanks to Helen Beardsley, it appears as though they have. In my next piece, I will detail exactly how my meeting with Helen unfolded but, for now, it's enough to celebrate the fact we have this lovely lady who cares as much about our roach as we do ourselves.