Manchester Anglers' Association Manuscript Books

From the earliest days the MAA members were encouraged to record their fishing exploits and present these as an often illustrated talk at monthly meetings of the Association at Manchester.  These talks were set down in a series of lavishly illustrated volumes and many of the talks eventually found their way into a series of three books entitled “Anglers’ Evenings“published by Abel Heywood Jnr. who was both the founder of the Association and a Manchester publisher, son of Abel Heywood the leading Chartist and Lord Mayor of Manchester.

The manuscript books were kept by various secretaries until around 1950 when they were discovered by David Marsden in a dustbin.  For many years David kept these volumes safe until around 2012 when he and his wife Jean transcribed and photographed them.  They present an almost unique record of late Victorian and Edwardian leisure activities for the professional class and the illustrations are of the highest order.  Many of the articles deal with exploits at Horton in Ribblesdale hence their inclusion in this archive.

Here they are for your enjoyment.