A bit more about the Club

The Club was started on 16 March 1949 although the initial history is all a bit fuzzy. The early years saw the Club obtaining rights to fish on a couple of local lakes and the River Stort with regular coach outings to Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex with the coaches picking up eager anglers from various locations in Bishop's Stortford. The membership quickly grew in the 50s and 60s and Malcolm Barker Lake was bought by the Club in [TBC]. By the 70s/ 80s the Club memberships was over 900.

In 1995 the Club was offered fishing rights over Beggars Hall Lake in Great Hallingbury; a former trout lake. Work started in getting it ready for fishing but promptly came to a halt with the tragic crash of Korean Air Flight 8509 on 22 December 1999 which landed along what is now the southern end of the lake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Cargo_Flight_8509

After the clean up which took a couple of years, the Club got back to work on the lake transforming it into probably our most popular lake with it reopening in 2002.

Just like painting the Forth Bridge, the lake is a constant work in progress as the plant life grows and the weather/wear and tear takes its toll on the swims. You will have seen over the last couple of seasons a rebuilding of most of the swims as the fluctuating water levels have taken their toll with up to 3 feet of difference between summer and winter.

An opportunity arose in 2007 for the Club to take on 2 more waters at Hall Farm when the farm converted from livestock to arable. After a lot of hard work what were once 2 slurry pits were transformed into a 26 peg match lake and our stock pond.

2024 saw Wickham Hall added to the Club's list of lakes after a lot of searching for new venues. The last couple of years have seen a lot of work with the help of our landlord in transforming an irrigation pond come ex-trout fishery. 20 pegs have been created and a new path around the lake is in the process of being dug in time for summer 2025.

This lake is still a bit of mystery being very deep and the fish just not yet used to angler's bait. It seems to have quite a few smaller carp in it and a couple of stockings of bream and roach have now gone in over the last couple of winters. Do let us know what you catch.

This is actually a return to the Hadham area as those with a long memory might remember Hadham Towers lake south of Much Hadham which was named after the grand manor house bulldozed in the early 1900s to quarry gravel and which became the lake. Sadly the lake was lost when the gravel pits were turned into refuse tips which they are now trying to decontaminate.