Elm Park, Hornchurch and District Angling Society

In the early 1930’s it was decided by the powers that be that a new Housing Estate would be erected between Dagenham and Hornchurch and so Elm Park came into being. One of the main builders concerned with the construction was a Company called Costains. To save costs it was decided to dig a sand and ballast pit in the area and at the end of all the building of the roads and houses the pit was allowed to fill with water.

It was not long before by various means the quite large pond had acquired a reasonable head of fish and with it a number of regular anglers. A few of these anglers got together and decided that it would be in their interest to form themselves into a club. At the first meeting held in a room in the new Elm Park Hotel it was agreed that the name of the club would be “The Elm Park Angling Society”.

From these humble beginnings and as more anglers became interested in joining the Society it was not long before the practice of having a ‘whip-round’ of sixpenny and threepenny bits each meeting night to pay for the hire of the room was a thing of the past.

There was soon need of a Treasurer to manage the small bank balance that was accumulating as the club went from strength to strength. As more members joined it become apparent that the name of the Society was inappropriate as members were coming from outside of the Elm Park area. At a special meeting it was eventually agreed that the name be changed to “The Elm Park, Hornchurch & District Angling Society” and so it has remained until this day.

At the end of the second World War and due to the proximity to Hornchurch Airfield the Society was presented with a nice trophy by the Royal Air Force which it was agreed would be known as “The Victory Cup” and this cup is still one of our many trophies which members fish for each year.

Gradually many more trophies were presented to the Society or were purchased to commemorate the passing of distinguished members of the Society. In fact there are now just over 40 Cups or Trophies presented each year to winning members plus replicas to runners-ups at the Society’s Annual Prize-giving Dinner & Dance.

As the size of the membership grew so the need for additional waters became a necessity and quite quickly three other waters came along just in time as the original lake was filled in and eventually built upon. One of the waters needed a great deal of work as it had been used by the army as a training range and many work parties found some quite interesting relics of the army’s use of the area. Most were not dangerous but quite a few were which added spice to working parties !! With South Weald, Parklands and Berwick Ponds now under control of the Society quite a few more members were finding their way into the club and so it was decided that a limit of 300 members should be imposed.

This number was very soon reached as the fisheries under the control of the club were excellent fisheries and all three had part of each specifically for Members Only.

Due to circumstances beyond the control of the club and mainly because of the numbers attending General Meetings a new Headquarters had to be found which turned out to be “The Compasses” Public House in Hornchurch. For a number of years this remained the headquarters of the Society as the club went from strength to strength with the numbers of members remaining at the predetermined 300 maximum.

Monthly Club Outings were well attended and at times there was the necessity to hire an extra coach as the 52 seater became full with more members wanting to attend a particular venue. On most occasions it was necessary for the Match Secretary to request volunteers to travel by their own transport as the coach became full. There was a marked decrease in the number of members when for reasons beyond the Society’s control the fisheries at South Weald and Berwick Ponds was lost. The answer was to be less selective on prospective new members who no longer needed to get a proposer and seconder to their application.

The numbers soon returned to a respectable number as the area in which members had to reside was also scrapped. It was also necessary, due to “The Compasses” being refitted to find a new headquarters, and we were lucky enough to obtain a larger hall at “The Railway Hotel” Hornchurch for a minimal hire charge each year.

We managed to get a further virgin lake in the Fyfield area but only on a fairly short lease. This was a lake with excellent water quality and the fish we introduced made terrific growth. Some time after acquiring Fyfield we also were offered a lake at Doddinghurst with the prospect of creating a further lake. This was very good for the Society as it was offered a long lease.

The clearing and eventually digging of the new lake was no easy task and the members worked long and hard and eventually the lake was ready to receive its first stock of fish. Purely by coincidence the lease at Fyfield had just ended and we were able to transfer most of the fish from there to the new Doddinghurst lake. Incidentally one of the small Sub-committee formed to oversee the digging of the new lake was named John Jenkinson who did well over 2,000 hours of working parties on the lake but very sadly died suddenly as a young man before he had the chance to fish the water.

In his honour the lake is named Jenkinson’s Pool and will always remain so as it is entered on the land deeds as such. Some time after the new lake had been created the owner of both lakes came forward with a proposal that the Executive Committee felt just could not be refused whereby by giving up the long lease on both lakes and for a reasonable sum we could purchase the “old” lake outright. This would mean the fulfillment of our long stated aim of one day owning our own fishery.

After some months of negotiation we became the owners of the lake together with access rights.

Not long after this we were offered another great opportunity when a relative of one of the Society’s Officers bought a large plot of land at Mores Lane, and offered us half the plot, containing a small lake, at very reasonable terms. With the knowledge and experience we had gained in creating the Doddinghurst lake, we jumped at this offer, and in just a couple of years had constructed another larger lake which we actually owned.

Over the years we have also leased fishing rights on stretches of rivers, including the Roding near Passingford Bridge and the Suffolk Stour at Flatford. These particular stretches we no longer lease, but we continue to enjoy fishing rights on a short stretch of the Thames downstream of Wallingford, on the Suffolk Stour at Bures and at Henny; the latter fishing rights being very kindly granted to us through an historical association by The Lord of the Manor of Abbas Hall, who currently resides in Chicago, Illinois in the USA

While fishing remains our main interest it does not mean that as a Society we do not become involved in other things. Every year we hold a Sponsored Charity Match for various local charities and/or appeals. We have by this means, for example, been able to donate to a local hospital Premature Baby Unit a total sum of over £7,000. On average each Charity Match raises a total of £1,750.

This History was kindy written by……. H. Sampson (Barry) Friend of the Society, Past Chairman, Trustee