The London Roach Pole

The mere mention of the name Sowerbutts and any collector or enthusiast will associate this company as being the maker of London Roach Poles, a tool favoured by the London angler for fishing the Thames or River Lee. 
It was widely used amongst the match angling circuit and it was not an uncommon sight to see these anglers wielding a bamboo pole on a Sunday morning fishing match on London’s famous River Thames. 
A typical Thames pole built for the professional angler would be a maximum length of 22ft whilst it’s slightly smaller cousin built for the River Lee would come in at 17ft 6ins.

The earlier poles were made by T.H. Sowerbutts of Commercial Street, London, E1 and finally ending up at Walthamstow under the guise of E.L. Sowerbutt. They were the most popular company making poles at that time.  However, there were others, such as Evans of Bethnal Green E2, who probably ranked as equal in the skill and making of the roach pole.  I have worked on some very early poles by this maker and they are superbly made and just as desirable as the Sowerbutts poles.  Another lesser known maker was Harry Creek of Walthamstow and Bazin of London Fields, Hackney, both made low production poles and they do turn up from time to time.

Post war Britain saw an influx of cheap “jap” poles that were aimed at the “novice” angler and although of no great value they are still delightfully made. But they do not possess the incredible skills of the master pole makers, such as Sowerbutts or Evans.

My friend, Michael Nadell has a very interesting and varied collection of poles from the early stables of Sowerbutts right through to the other afore-mentioned makers.  It was from his collection that I began on the restoration of roach poles and it was a welcome break from working on rods alone.  It was not until I started work on the poles that I began to realise how much skill went into producing these wonderful items of fishing tackle.  In my understandable ignorance, I believed them to be just large cumbersome lengths of bamboo which just slotted together and away you went.  Far from it, they are ingenious bits of equipment with the butt section large enough in diameter to allow the third joint and tips to slot into one another. This left the second joint which allowed the fourth joint to also slot into one another so all joints were neatly packed away for protection and ease of carrying. 

This brings me to another great part of the skill involved in making a good quality pole. 
To enable the joints to fit in comfortably when packing away, it was imperative that all joints were internally hollowed out and above all, every joint had to be completely straight.  All nodes on the bamboo were filed down flat and the bamboo was heat treated to soften the culm so as to enable the maker to straighten out all the natural kinks in each section.  Once this was complete and the bamboo
hadn’t split, then all the enamel was removed from the surface of the bamboo.

Once this stage was complete on all sections then the ferrules were added.
These were very thin walled sheet brass or nickel silver and sometimes rolled and shaped to the station of the bamboo where they were to be placed.  The pole was often fished at full length and it was also fished the last two or three sections, whip style and the constant unshipping of each section would prove to create wear to the internal wall of the female end of each bamboo section.  To prevent this wear and tear a very ingenious internal ferrule was added, equally as thin walled as the outer ferrule.  The fitting of these inner and outer ferrules with their very fine tolerance is a skill to admire.  The butt section of any pole looks deceptively heavy and cumbersome but was incredibly light and I have worked on many poles with the butt section made from a variety of materials, such as mahogany, oak, pine and of course, tonkin, all being hollowed along their entire internal length with very fine tolerances.

The end cap made by most of the top quality makers would either be brass or nickel silver and engraved with the maker’s name and address, with the earlier ones being in beautiful copperplate script.

Roach poles were usually whipped in black silk and Sowerbutts pattern of decoration was usually a thin band of silk, about five turns of thread, then the gap would be ¼ inch, followed by a wider band of silk also with a ¼ inch gap, then completed with a five turn of thin silk to finish. This would be repeated along the length of each section at equal intervals and would decrease and get closer together as they reached the top section.

Each and every pole I have worked on over the years are all individual, no two have ever been the same. 
The raw natural material being used doesn’t allow this, so they are all unique.

Generally, when I receive a pole to work on, they are rarely in good condition.  They were real workhorses and would often be passed down through the family from father to son.  They would suffer breakages at times and a new piece of bamboo would have been skilfully spliced in, probably by the maker. Others have splits but these are generally not a problem and if the split hasn’t travelled any further in their long lifespan, they are hardly likely to go any further. These can be repaired and although a painstaking process the results are very pleasing.

The approach to restoring a roach pole is very much in line with restoring a cane rod.  The rules are the same, all whipping must be replaced exactly as the original rod and all provenance must be intact.  Through working on many roach poles over the years I would say that there is as much skill in making them as there is in making a split cane rod.  It is very satisfying to bring back these old workhorses to their original glory and when it is duly returned back to its owner, it is nice to know that once again it will grace the banks of the Thames in search of those “goer” roach.