The Angler’s Co-operative Association (ACA) was formed to fight the increasing amount of pollution of the nation’s rivers and streams and to improve fish stocks. Members were encouraged by the committee to take individual membership and in February 1949 the Society itself joined for a fee of 10 guineas (£10.50).

In June 1946 members were prohibited from using bread, either as hook-bait or ground-bait.  In more recent times bread has been banned at Broadwater because of pollution problems but this was not the case in 1946. Times were very hard immediately after the war when some categories of rationing became more stringent than they had been during the conflict. Bread flour was in very short supple, hence not a crumb of it could be wasted on fish.

Members needed to be wary of the pollution threat. In November 1945 the Society reported that effluent was reaching the river from the Catteshall Lane factory of RFD, a company who, during the war, had specialized in the manufacture of safety equipment, such as inflatable life rafts, and barrage balloons. In April 1949 there was a problem on the river as the result of an oil spill and in July of the same year ‘great numbers of dead fish were seen’ in Hell Ditch. Members were advised to get in touch with the Thames Conservancy immediately they spotted any pollution. This was the body responsible for the maintenance of the River Thames and its tributaries such as the River Wey.

The Society became ever-more active in its quest to keep the waters it fished healthy and well stocked. There is no doubt that the driving force behind this was Alf Johnson. A river management committee was formed and improvements were soon forthcoming. Apart from responsibilities to maintain banks and side streams and to carry out netting and stocking, some of the committee’s aims were well ahead of their time. They included the planting and preservation of water plants and the purchase of shrimps and snails for distribution in the river.

At the AGM in April 1948 Alf proposed that the Society’s subscription be raised from 6/- (30p) to 7/6 (37½p) and that the increase should be used entirely as a re-stocking fund. Unfortunately, his proposal was not carried but he seems to have worked on undaunted searching out fish to enhance the quality of the members’ sport. At the same AGM it was reported that 6000 to 7000 fish had been put into the river and later in the year fish were obtained from Enton Mill pond. A small pond at Lydling Farm near Shackleford was investigated for use as a stock pond although nothing seems to have come of this. Two or three years later the Society was making use of one of Mr Blackburn’s ponds at Catteshall Mill as a stock pond.

In 1949 the river at Eashing was stocked with 2000 trout and members wishing to try their luck with the fly were charged an extra 5/- for the pleasure. In the same year an estimated 10,000 coarse fish went into the river and in October 1949 300 bream were purchased and released at The Wharf. A further 500 bream were stocked at Salgasson in 1951 and 1000 perch, 1,500 roach and 52 pike were released at The Wharf in 1952. The committee minutes throughout the 1950s include references to further stocking and the investigation of other possible sources of fish. By 1959 the Society was making use of the latest technology of electro-fishing.

During the immediate post-war period the Society’s competitions continued to be fished at various places on the River Wey including Eashing, Common Meadows, Unstead and Broadford Bridge and also at Shillinglee, Busbridge, Vachery Pond south of Cranleigh and Broadwater. In March 1946 the Society gave up its rental of the Peper Harow stretch of the river in favour of Forked Pond near Thursley. This led to clash with Farnham Angling Society who viewed the pond as being very much on their patch. Matters reached a head when Farnham withdrew from the Stedman Cup Competition, which had been an annual event between the two societies for many years. The disagreement was later resolved and it seems that Godalming Angling Society only held the rights to Forked Pond for the 1946/47 season.

By March 1949, the countrywide start of the season had been firmly set on 16^th June, a date which was for many years to remain for members the most important day of the year apart, perhaps, from Christmas and birthdays. It is interesting to also note that by the beginning of 1949 members were taking part in ‘matches’ rather than ‘competitions’.  

The society had been established in 1881 solely to organise ‘competitions’ but post-war it was now appreciated that other aspects of the sport were equally important.  Across England individual anglers, some of whom became nationally well-known figures thanks to advent of The Angling Times newspaper, such as Dick Walker and Fred J. Taylor, were already in search of species record breakers.  Other anglers, such as Bernard Venables, were showing the wonders to be discovered simply by going fishing. Venables gave simple advice on how to catch fish through the angling exploits of a man and his son in an illustrated strip published regularly in the Daily Mall. This was then brought together in the seminal soft cover book entitled Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing. For some of the present older members of Godalming Angling Society this book was their inspiration.

During this post-war period membership of the Society fluctuated. In 1946 it stood at a total of 279 but this had increased dramatically to 457 in 1947 and by 1950 it had reached a total of 703, including 247 juniors. The subscription was raised to 10/- (50p) for adults and 2/6 (12½p)for juniors in 1951, which caused a dramatic drop in membership in 1952 to 261 adults and 177 juniors. Thereafter through the decade it gradually increased to reach a total of 778 in 1959. ‘Man and wife’ joint membership at 12/6 (62½p) per season was introduced in 1952 and by the following year there were 18 joint memberships.

Committee members worked hard to try to find a suitable permanent headquarters for the Society. Various places were investigated. One idea was to erect a clubhouse at Broadwater and this was approved by Godalming Borough and ‘a site earmarked’.  In October 1960 a proposal ‘that a building fund be opened’ was carried. The building was to be called ‘The Godalming Angling Society Club House to the memory of Mr J.E. Lee’. John Lee, who died in February 1959, had for many years been a very active committee member, secretary and treasurer, often all at the same time. As secretary he helped guide the society for  21 years. It was hoped to lease land at The Wharf for the construction of this purpose-built H Q. Unfortunately, the Commissioners of the Godalming Navigation turned down the idea, telling the Society that no land was available. Eventually, it was back to Broadwater where the Society ended up renting the dairy of the model farm associated with Broadwater House.

By the end of the 1950s the Society was developing into the organisation it is today, one operating to the highest professional standards with the emphasis on pleasure fishing, including specimen hunting, in addition to its original role of organising matches. Apart from Alf Johnson and John Lee, other key names stand out during this period – A. Barnett,  J. Edwards, R. Hackett, J. Heksel, E. Mills, W. ‘Billy’ Mills, H. Tidy, Harold West and S.G. West in particular. The minute books record the names of many more who tirelessly gave their spare time to the successful development of the Society. It is not possible to record them all here.

Up to the start of the1960s the Society had fishing rights on various local waters either by annual rental or thanks to the generosity of riparian owners. The beginning of this new decade saw the committee heavily occupied with negotiations to purchase 17 acres of land and river above Westbrook Mills at Salgasson. This was a completely new departure and it started a process which has seen the Society develop into a substantial land owner.

The years since the purchase of Salgasson has seen the acquisition of Large Enton Lake, now named in memory of Alf Johnson,  and Busbridge Lower Lake, now renamed Wood Lake after David Wood, who contributed much to the progress achieved by the Society in more recent times. Most importantly, the society not only purchased Marsh Farm adjacent to Johnson’s Lake but then constructed a series of lakes on the land together with a clubhouse. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of Malcolm Richardson and Graham Harris, whose names have been given to the two main lakes constructed on the farm. Their names will figure very prominently in the next part of the Godalming Angling Society’s 140 years of history.