With the development of Portsmouth Harbour as the Royal Navy’s premier base, particularly during the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Godalming found itself ideally placed as a midway rest stop for the weary traveller on the main route to and from London. As a result, a large number of inns were established in the town. Among these was the Sun Inn, situated prominently at the east end of the High Street.

The Sun has been an important meeting place for townspeople since at least 1662, when it was known as the Half Moon. Here men would congregate, not only to socialise, but also to conduct business. The present building was constructed between March 1764 and January 1766 and named The Sun by the then innholder, Henry Tuesly. The inn also had its own brewery, which was a major enterprise in the town until it closed in 1891. The main brewing tower still survives as 2, Bridge Street.

A Return of Licensed Houses published in 1892 lists 39 public houses and 9 off-licences in Godalming and Farncombe. The rigid class system of the time meant that each establishment survived the apparent fierce competition by catering specifically for a particular category of customer. For example, The King’s Arms was described as ‘first-class commercial’, the Star in Church Street was used by ‘mill-hands at the tannery and dye house’ whilst, at the other end of the scale, The Queen’s Head in Brighton Road, Crownpits, was the haunt of ‘tramps and convicted thieves’.

The Sun was recorded as a respectable hostelry ‘accepted by tradesmen as a good house for transacting business. In 1881 it must have seemed the ideal place to settle down among friends over a glass of local ale one evening and start an angling society. It was Tuesday, 31^st May 1881.

‘The Wey - We are glad to learn that an effort is being made to preserve and improve the fishing on this river, which of old has often afforded good sport to the angler,’ reported the Surrey Advertiser. ‘… a well-attended and representative meeting was held at Godalming, when it was unanimously decided to form an Angling Society, as a means of preserving the fishing, and preventing netting and other unsportsmanlike methods of taking fish’, continued the reporter. ‘The society, we are informed, is likely to receive influential and general support, and we wish it all the success its objects deserve.’

Although the Surrey Advertiser does not say exactly where in Godalming this auspicious meeting took place, all the evidence points to the fact that it was held at the Sun Inn. Walter Hoar, landlord of the Sun, was the Society’s first treasurer, and the Society continued to hold its AGM at the inn until 1907 and it also had a ‘club room’ there until 1906.

The Society’s first secretary was Francis Dowse and among those most likely to have been present at the inaugural meeting was Edward Stedman, a Godalming wine and spirit merchant and town mayor, who was elected Vice-President. He also chaired most of the Annual General Meetings until 1906.

Thomas Baverstock, a brewer, who until 1883 ran the adjacent Sun Brewery, was also an early member, as was another local brewer, Thomas White. Several well-known town shopkeepers and tradesmen can also be identified from the Surrey Advertiser reports and entries in Craddock’s Godalming Almanac and Directory. These included Henry Lewer, a Pound Lane whitesmith, who has claims to being Godalming’s first electrician, and at least one member of the famous cricketing family of Caesars. Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Marshall, who lived at Broadwater, accepted the Presidency of the Society. He was a great sportsman, who for many years was also president of the Surrey County Cricket Club.

A committee was established to run the day-to-day affairs of the Society but not until 1894 is there any reference to ordinary committee members by name. In that year the officers appointed at the AGM were Frederick Marshall, president, Edward Stedman, chairman and vice-president, Francis Dowse, hon. secretary, Walter Hoar, treasurer, J. Wright, collector. The additional committee members were the Rev G.S. Davies, W.T. Mitchell, M.W. Marshall and Mr Allen Nevill.

In theory, membership of the Society seems to have been open to all, but this did not include women. Fishing on the Sabbath was also much frowned upon and this in effect would have excluded the working class, whose only free day would have been Sunday. There was also a distinction between those who ran their own businesses or shops, who were always referred to by forename initials and surname, whereas those who were obviously employees had to make do with just their surname.

In these early days the Society concentrated its fishing on the River Wey and it appears that ‘pond fishing’ was very much a poor relation. The main function of the committee was to organise ‘competitions’ as matches were called in those days. The annual subscription was 2s 6d (12½p) in 1883 but this had risen to 3s (15p) by 1888 and it remained at that level until at least 1913.

Prizes were introduced right from the beginning, but were awarded for the biggest weight of a single species caught during a competition. The idea of the winner taking the prize for the heaviest aggregate weight of all fish seems to have come a little later. It was at the AGM in 1888 that we have the first hint that match fishing as we know it today was becoming popular. The treasurer reported that ‘£8 … was set aside for prizes …’ and ‘it was decided that £2 should be again given … on opening day, but jack were excluded from the heaviest basket.’

Aside from competitions the Society soon established as its main objective the conservation and improvement of the river. Members sought to prevent ‘unsportsmanlike’ methods of catching fish, especially netting. Some may find it difficult today to appreciate that freshwater fish were seen as a food source and the wholesale netting of rivers and ponds was a common means of supply. Broadwater Lake was undoubtedly constructed in the medieval period as a pond to produce fish for the table and the father of angling, Isaac Walton, included a recipe for every freshwater species in The Complete Angler published in 1653. Richard Fenn of Farncombe paid poor rate ‘for the fish ponds’ in 1794 and 1795.

The Society’s first AGM took place at the Sun Inn on the evening of Monday, 1^st May 1882, by which time it could boast a membership of 113. Prizes were awarded to ‘Denyer’ for pike, to H. Lewer for roach, J. Cooper for dace, whilst the gudgeon prize went to ‘Court’. The Surrey Advertiser reported that there were no entries for bream, chub or tench. Henry Lewer also won ‘Mr Steere’s prize of a roach rod for the heaviest roach’. William Steere had a shop in Bridge Street and can claim to be Godalming’s first fishing tackle dealer. The same fish also won Henry Lewer the ‘Messrs Horne and Norris’s prize of a box of cigars. Unfortunately, the newspaper does not report the weight of this important fish.

It was also reported at this AGM that the Society had already received permissions which allowed members to fish from ‘Mr Blackman’s meadow above Eashing Bridge to the Guildford and Horsham Railway Bridge at Shalford’. George Blackman was landlord of the Stag, which also boasted its own brewery at this time. The various permissions gained during the society’s first year also included, according to the Surrey Advertiser, ‘the mill pool at Messrs Pullman’s [Westbrook Mill], the backwater at Messrs Spicer’s mills [Catteshall], and the intermediate waters between Eashing Bridge and Messrs Pullman’s mills, most of which had not been previously accessible except by special permission’.

The Society had also been busy instituting a programme of stocking the river. A quantity of fish had been gifted by Mrs Hall Hall of Witley and one hundred jack, purchased from Mr Marden of Frensham, had also been ‘turned into different parts of the river’. The stocking of trout had also been considered but ‘the pecuniary position of the Society would not justify the expense.’

Among the many interesting aspects of the Surrey Advertiser’s report of this first AGM is the reference to the existence of an earlier society. It was reported that the Society’s finances were ‘flourishing, and had been strengthened by the transfer of £10 15s 1d from the old Society to the present, and the Society were indebted to the executors of the late Mr. H. Stedman, who was secretary of the old Angling Society, for the augmentation’. This was a substantial sum to receive in 1881, which points to a once thriving predecessor. Unfortunately, no further information on this earlier society has been forthcoming during extensive research.

It can be seen from the report of the Society’s first AGM that the officers of the fledgling society had worked extremely hard during its first year, as indeed do those who continue to administer the society today. Only eleven months after the first meeting in 1881 the foundations of the society as we know it today had already been laid down.