CAA History - Boreham

In the late 1820's, two brothers George and Frank Hawkes, who ran a small joinery business in Rainsford End, started building houses. They bought a piece of land at Boreham to extract sand and ballast mainly for their own use. The demand for aggregates increased and at the outbreak of war increased considerably. Numerous defense contracts in the area needed large amounts of ballast and when the United States entered the war and planned an airfield about half a mile away, the digging soon became an area of about 7 acres. When supplies from this pit ran out, trial diggings were made to the south but the quality was poor and the project was abandoned. The Hawkes brothers were left with an area of about 20 acres which included the big lake and a small pond at the back.

We were given permission to use this as a fishery although the back pond was little more than a swamp. The big lake contained thousands of small roach and rudd and some very big eels. We continued to fish this water and it appeared on our list of waters as Hawkes Pit.

In 1951, after much cajoling by our old friend Maurice Moore, the Hawkes brothers agreed to sell the Association the freehold for £200 although they kept most of the road frontage where the bungalow is built and retained ownership of the many willow trees that were there. We paid 10% deposit and completed a few months later. At the next AGM, it was felt that Hawkes Pit was not a suitable name for what promised to be a first class fishery and the late Wilfred Winterflood proposed that it be called Boreham Mere and this was adopted.

The immediate problem was to get rid of some of the "chats" in the water. We held one or two all-in competitions and the River Board shocked the water but little impression was made. We eventually bought 200 pike which had been imported from Germany where they are used for table and in about 3 years, we felt that the water was improving. The next thing we had to face was the weed which now nearly covered the whole lake making it almost impossible to get a bait down. We bought 600 mirror carp and 200 tench (all about 3" long) which did more to solve the weed problem than all our working parties.

Throughout this time, much effort had been put into making the area more amenable to angling. Two members, Ernie Springett and Les Creasey worked their way right round the lake with picks and shovels to form a ledge to walk around. The whole area was a mass of brambles and undergrowth. I borrowed a flame gun but packed it up when I nearly set the village on fire, but eventually the banks were a bit clear. We had a cedar chalet built and this was erected in 1954 at a cost of £185.

The following year we were prosecuted for not felling the willow trees which had become diseased with Water Mark. We claimed that they were not our property and not our liability refusing to give the name of the owners of the trees. In the end we had them felled by a chip basket manufacturer but he left all the tops and did not poison the stumps. The prosecution was finally withdrawn after we had shown that something was being done.

All this is now history and for the next few years the place remained much the same with very limited maintenance. We did have ambitions at one time to create a trout fishery in the back pond. The pond was cleared and a further hole dug to the west. The brook on the boundary was piped enabling us to have a flow of water through the fishery. We made one stocking of trout but the project was doomed with the large amount of coarse fish both in the lake itself and a lot more coming down the brook.
Reg Collings became very interested in the whole fishery and formed a small band of people willing to contribute time and energy into creating the area we now enjoy. When Reg left the district, John French carried on with an even smaller number of helpers. They have worked wonders as you will know but I will leave John to enlarge on this in a later newsletter.

JACK YERBURY.
The above article was a small section from a newsletter which was dated 90.
The author of the nostalgic piece was a Mr Jack Yerbury.

Thank you to the following past committee members who were named on the newsletters back in the day.
Editor:- D Wiffen
Secretary:- J Hopkins
Mem Secretary:- Mrs I Lewis
Chairman:- J Peachey Edwards

I would also like to thank Mr Mick Bearman and Mr Stefan Reed who kindly brought these newsletters to my attention.

I hope you enjoyed reading the above. Peter Harrington

As Some of you might be aware Boreham Mere had a devasting crash several years ago, needless to say that 99% of the stock were destroyed. Boreham Mere has since taken years to get back on track to where we are today, with numerous Carp & Pike in there 30's, large Bream, Tench & Perch, it is the volunteers hard work and determination over the years that allows us to enjoy such a great fishery. I am hoping to get a full report of "Big Crash" so I can publish it on the website so watch this space. In the mean time here are some of the famous residents before the crash that are sadly no longer around

Chelmsford Angling Association

CAA History - Boreham