The Company and the Men.
The Company & The Men
Percy Wadham and Percy Scott formed the Dreadnought Casting Reel Company in April 1909 to make and market the Meteor reel. Percy Wadham the celluloid expert produced a number of baits and accessories.
The Company
The Dreadnought Casting Reel Company was incorporated on 3rd May 1909 with three shareholders, Percy Frank Wadham, Albert Percy Scott and Arthur Ernest Wadham. Each holding 25 shares, with the aim of buying the patent from Scott and Wadham, manufacturing and marketing the Meteor reel and other fishing related inventions. Arthur Wadham, brother of Percy, was an auctioneer and furniture retailer but as far as I am aware did not fish, make reels or had any other interest in the company other than financially.
Scott and Wadham had devised and manufactured the meteor reel possibly as long as three years previously and had used it successfully in the various casting tournaments that were the vogue of the day.
The company was based in Newport on the Isle of Wight with both men being residents of the island. Although they knew each other from schooldays it was the invention of a series of weed cutters that possibly brought them together in a business relationship.
There was some individual business activity prior to the official company start-up date, with adverts in the various angling press. In the Fishing Gazette, there were a series of adverts, the 20th July issue, The Simplex Aquatic Weed Cutter is being offered by Percy Wadham. On 7th August, the Dreadnought Weed Cutter is being offered by The Lukely Engineering Co. and on 11th December 1909 the Meteor reel is being offered by the Dreadnought Casting Reel Co. Ltd.
Meanwhile four hundred miles north in Alnwick, Northumberland, minutes of the meeting of the Hardy Bros. board of directors for the 3rd of June 1909 stated that a draft agreement had been returned to Percy Wadham on 14th June 1909 for an exchange of licenses between Hardy Bros. and The Dreadnought Casting Reel Co. In my opinion, it was necessary to have the company registered so that the licenses could be signed, these licenses will be examined when discussing the Meteor reel.
Percy Wadham was the managing director and Percy Scott in charge of the reel making department. The manager was a Mr. William Albert George Thicknesse who had worked for Carswell & Co, Farlow & Co and Hardy Brothers in London, before moving to the Island. This was in 1910 but this arrangement did not last long because in the first catalogue, issued in August 1911, his name and a brief background about him were given. The first catalogue also states that their specialities could be inspected and obtained from their representative, Mr. R. C. Luce at 27 Chancery Lane London. This was also the address of George Morris a Solicitor who was later listed as Thicknesse’s next of kin.
The only copy of the 1911 catalogue that I have seen has a pasted piece of paper covering Thickness’s details and the reference to the London showroom. By the time the second catalogue, issued in 1913, came out, his details were completely removed. I understand that the reason he did not stay for long was that Mrs. Wadham did not like him. He moved back to London and started his own retail business in Piccadilly Arcade selling the Carswell Modified Illingworth reel, the Dreadnought Casting Reels Company’s reels and other tackle. In 1915 he closed his business, handed it over to G Little in Haymarket and joined the Army. In 1917, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corp and was discharged in 1919.
I do believe that Scott and Arthur Wadham, two of the three directors, carried on with their own individual business’s and activities, the fact that they were not fully reliant on the success of the Dreadnought Casting Reel Co. meant that it could have been considered as a hobby or a side line. Percy Wadham however needed something else.
Scott and Wadham had a disagreement that resulted in the demise of the company, exactly what the disagreement was about is not known but possibly due to the future direction the company was to take. A few suggestions from the families are that Wadham wanted to sell the company along with the patents but Scott did not want to do either. I understand that Wadham and his brother, with two thirds of the shares, had sold the company before 1914 to Milward who thought that they were buying not only the company but also the patents. Scott refused and with the complexities of the ownership of the patents, the sale fell through.
During the First World War the company, or rather Scott’s engineering company, was involved in making components for the war effort. S E Saunders based at Cowes were involved in the construction of marine and air craft and virtually no tackle was made. At the end of the War, as in every walk of life things changed and the two men went their own way. Maybe Scott was not inclined to pursue the career of a reel maker which would not have paid him anything near what the company was earning from its engineering activities with the military contractors.
It was announced on January 20th1920 that Wadham had come back from the Admiralty, having “done his bit, and has set the reel running in earnest at the Dreadnought works”. New and interesting novelties were promised that would be due in the spring. No details were given of exactly what he was doing in the Admiralty. In December 1919, an advert appeared announcing that a new catalogue for the Dreadnought Casting Reel Company would soon be ready. The 1914 edition of the 1913 catalogue has run out in mid 1917. The last advert for the Dreadnought Casting Reel Company was on 13th December 1919. This was followed by a note in the Anglers News in January 1920 that Percy Wadham was ready to start the Dreadnought Casting Reel Company again.
In February 1920, the first advert for Percy Wadham Specialities appeared and the new catalogue in the new company’s name was ready. Scott, whose engineering business had seen considerable growth during the war, continued to make the reels for the new company but this was not a significant part of the business for his company.
In July 1922 Percy Wadham Specialities Ltd. was voluntarily wound up and by the June of 1923 sold to Milward. Percy Wadham Specialities Ltd. was acquired by Milward in 1923 who continued to market the range of tackle previously sold. The company was managed by Walton Wadham, Percy’s son.
There was a subtle change of the public name, with no announcements that I could find, in 1926 changing from Percy Wadham Specialities to Wadham Specialities in the advertisements, the legal name did not change. However, the 1927 catalogue is listed on the first page as Percy Wadham Specialities. I suspect that this was paving the way for Walton Wadham to run the company on his own.
On the 12th August 1940 Milward reversed the action of 1922 and sold the assets to Walton Wadham for £50. Percy Wadham Specialities Ltd. became part of Wight manufacturing and mainly made baits and accessories for the tackle trade rather than dealing directly with the public.
The company continued under Walton’s management until 1965 when it was sold. The new owners operated the business from the Island and eventually sold the company to mainland owners in the late 1970s and the connection with the Island was broken.
Percy Frank Wadham
Percy Frank Wadham was born on19th August 1874 at Newport Isle of Wight. Educated at the Portland House Academy in Newport he was apprenticed as a cabinet maker but did not complete his apprenticeship. He changed his career to that of a taxidermist, completing his training with the firm of William Chalkley based at the Square in Winchester, Hampshire
William Chalkley was a self-taught taxidermist who eventually became honorary curator of the Winchester Museum. He also sold fishing tackle and I wonder if this had any influence on the future direction that Percy Wadham’s life would take. He eventually returned to the Island and when Thomas Switzer, listed as a Heraldic Artist died Percy Wadham took over and set up his own business in March 1897 at 30 Holyrood Street Newport. William Chalkley supplied Itchen bred trout throughout the country and Wadham represented him on the Island.
Francis Smith was the foremost naturalist on the Island, also working in Newport and Percy Wadham succeeded him when Smith retired. Smith is listed as working in the High Street as a taxidermist until 1890 when he moved to Castle Road and is then described and listed as a Naturalist. Eventually Percy Wadham became the Plumassier and Naturalist to Queen Victoria and her son Edward VII.
When I saw his occupation listed as Plumassier I did try and look it up in various dictionaries before eventually finding a French company who were Plumassier, dealers in feathers and plumes. Just what the typical Victorian lady needed to decorate her hats and dresses.
In August 1901, we see the first indication of the inventiveness of Percy Wadham when The Field carried a story of a new net invented by him for use by Lepidopterist. What he had done was take the principles of the folding landing net used by fishermen and apply it to the butterfly collector’s net. The Field pointed out that it folded down small enough to fit in the pocket or a bag.
He was a very well-known character on the Island being the Deputy Captain of the Newport Volunteer Fire Brigade. On Christmas day 1901 he married Lila Fanny Watt in a wedding that was widely reported. It even listed all the various presents given. Lila bought him an entomologist cabinet and Percy bought her a sewing machine.
Later the Mayor of Newport presented him with a silver spirit lamp and tea kettle to celebrate the wedding on behalf of the officers and men of the Fire Brigade. They then retired at the invitation of the Mayor to the Warburton’s Hotel where the health of the bride and groom were drunk “with great heartiness”
Percy Wadham was at this time listed in the trade directory for the Island as being at Holyrood Street from 1899 to 1903 when he moved to Waltondale on Carisbrooke road. However, an article in the Isle of Wight County Press for July 1901 states that he has given up his business in Newport and moved to York Villa on Castle Road, which he renamed Waltondale. I found the house on Carisbrooke road and the house name was still there, when Percy Wadham move in it backed onto the Lukely brook. He would later in life take over the family home The Lindens at 100 Carisbrooke road.
This change of address was part of his duties as the Pisciculturist for the Lukely Fishing Association. Trout fishing available on the Island was somewhat limited due to the fact that no one seemed interested in managing any of the streams with most of them being neglected. Waltondale was close to the Lukely brook, a small put perfect chalk stream with potential for some fine fishing.
Despite being an island the sea fishing was poor according to some sources, mainly due to the navy using the Solent as a firing range, and the coarse fishing was not much better.
There were obviously some people interested in securing some decent fly fishing and this association was set up when Percy Wadham approached Francis T. Mew J.P. the Mayor of Newport and some other prominent islanders to help him finance the project. They took over the lease for approximately one mile of the river Lukely and five interconnected mill ponds and during 1900 steps were taken to introduce the Rainbow Trout.
This fish had been introduced to England during the latter part of the 1890s with Blagdon Reservoir in Somerset successfully turning itself into a rainbow trout fishery. The river Lukely was a very pure river suitable for rearing trout and had until about 1870 been well known as a trout fishery. The activities of The Carisbrooke Water Company in extracting water had completely destroyed it as a trout fishery. Percy Wadham during January 1901 secured and successfully hatched a quantity of rainbow trout ova. He had 2,800 young fish to introduce into a section of the river that had been earmarked as a hatchery and nursery.
The plans were to widen the stream, remove the weed and debris from both the river and ponds and to expand the Association to twenty rods with their own waters ready to fish in March 1902. They also appointed an under bailiff to work with Percy Wadham and set about attracting members with a subscription of ten guineas (£10:10s) per year “payable in advance”.
By July 1902 the association had changed its name to the Carisbrooke Association and Percy Wadham was actively promoting it by writing about it and offering leading anglers and angling writers a chance to fish its water. R. B. Marston, editor of the Fishing Gazette, presented the Carisbrooke Association with 500 yearling rainbow trout which were put into the fishery on 18th November 1902. These fish had been reared at the famous Itchen Trout Breeding Establishment owned by E. Valentine Corrie who decided to take a rod at the fishery. Marston wanted a yearly report each March for the Fishing Gazette on the state of the fish. At this time, we must remember that the rainbow trout rearing was in its infancy with many people wondering what they could offer to trout fishing in England.
Percy Wadham was a great friend of Marston with the pairs of them going on fishing trips, in 1902 they fished in Windermere. On another trip, he fished the river Spey on the Carron Bridge beat along with friends and family.
He also visited The Shetland Isles where he not only fished but managed to observe the activities at a whaling station where they processed the carcasses. Looking at the photographs in the family archive it appears to be the Collfirth Station originally opened in 1904 but closed by the government in 1914 due to WW1.
He continued to be involved in his other activities and we learn from various cuttings in the local press about some of the many specimens that he set up including in 1902 a White Stork and an albino Rook.
One problem with many fisheries, both then and now, was weed. The Carisbrooke fishery consisted of a series of mill ponds connected by streams and as their Pisciculturist and Naturalist he was charged with the task of overcoming this problem.
In July 1903, the Fishing Gazette carries an article on the Fennel-leaved pond weed saying that the only way to control it was by cutting. They say that Mr. Percy Wadham has invented a weed cutter and they are looking forward to reviewing it.
It is at this point that the Naturalist starts to engage in mechanical matters with the invention of the Simplex Aquatic Weed Cutter. Patent 9431/04 is granted to the new invention and someone must have manufactured it because in May 1904 the Fishing Gazette carries a review and a picture of the machine in operation. The Lukely Company manufactured this item for him and I suspect that the childhood school acquaintances between the two men were rekindled around this period.
The weed cutter consisted of a fish tail blade approximately five-foot-long that fitted to the bow of a boat or to a punt. One man pushed the punt forward whilst the other man worked the tiller type handle attached to the cutter to remove the weed, the height was adjustable. It is at this stage where I believe the business relationship between Wadham and Scott commenced. He would need someone capable of putting his ideas into practice.
John Bickerdyke, after whom the Bickerdyke line guard was named, reviewed the weed cutter in the 7th August 1907 edition of The Field. He was in fact Charles Henry Cook, John Bickerdyke being the nom-de-plume he used for his writings. The editor of the Field asked him to cycle over to Newport and look at the weed cutter. Now he knew that Percy Wadham managed the Carisbrooke fishery and the chance of some trout fishing was too good to miss. We also learn from his visit about some of the various ideas that were being experimented with.
They looked at some carp in a pond in his garden before going into his house. Here he was astonished at the various specimens that had been set up, including a dog, some game and best of all a rainbow trout described as “absolutely life like with its iridescent colourings” Percy Wadham explained that the fish was in fact made from papier-mâché with real fins.
They then looked at various tackle items, a very light but strong landing net, cases of flies, a fly book with glazed windows, a selection of artificial flies and a casting reel suitable for light weights on which they were looking to secure a patent. This is a very important piece as it is the first mention of the unnamed Meteor reel. Bickerdyke is very impressed with the flies and describes them “they imitated nature”, again we see the first mention of another aspect of his tackle making that would play such an important part in the development of the company.
They then look at the weed cutter which is in “the factory” again a clue that a business relationship between Wadham and Scott was in force. Bickerdyke is impressed with the machine and they then decide to go to one of the ponds that has a good growth of weed so that he can try out the machine. Again, he is very impressed having worked as the cutter piloting the punt.
They then turn their attention to the new reel and spend half an hour casting with it in company “with its maker and part designer, Mr. Scott” Obviously there is a question of confidentiality as no patents have been applied for or granted at this stage. “Of this I may only here say that it promises well” was the only comment passed on the performance of the reel.
There is then a break in the proceedings as young girl comes running up to them crying “Fire! Mr. Wadham”. Percy Wadham goes to answer the telephone and John Cook watches as he cycles off down the hill to join the rest of the crew at the fire station.
With time on his hands he goes into Newport for tea before returning to the pools for the evening rise. He struggles to catch fish and tries out another of Percy Wadham’s inventions, a corrugated and galvanised steel punt. Eventually he catches one and the deputy captain of the fire brigade returns. At the end of the session he has managed to catch five trout and set off to cycle back to his house overlooking the Solent.
What he did mention in his article was the fact that rods were available on the Carisbrooke fishery. This is something that all the people who tried out the fishery and wrote about it pointed out and I suspect that even with the low target of twenty members it was never filled.
Letter heads and trade cards dating from between 1905 and 1907 lists some of his ever-expanding interests. After 1907 he is no longer listed in the trade directories as a taxidermist. Another trade card drops the birds of the earlier one to include another invention “the Scalloped Weed Cutting Wire Rope”.
Around this period Percy Wadham was a regular and frequent contributor to many periodicals including the Fishing Gazette. One very interesting piece and something that I had never heard of before, concerns the memorial rings bequeathed by Izaak Walton to friends and family in his will, dated August 9th, 1683.
R. B. Marston, editor of the Fishing Gazette, was put in touch by Percy Wadham with a Miss Rowland, a resident of Sandown, and a descendent of Walton. The outcome was that in June 1903 the Fishing Gazette published a photograph of the ring.
In March of 1905 it is announced that Percy Wadham has sold his idea for a folding landing net called the Paragon to Messrs. Allcock the net consists of three strips of “U” shaped steel, similar to that used for making umbrellas, that clipped together and was available in three sizes. Allcock continued to manufacture this net for many years.
Percy Wadham continued to promote his inventions and we see him corresponding with the Fishing Gazette on many occasions. One article he wrote in 1906, published in the Isle of Wight County Press and the Fishing Gazette, was on how he had hand reared a group of Kingfishers for eight months before releasing them back into the wild.
In October 1907 Wadham was granted a patent for a collapsible line drier and I believe that he sold this patent to Allcocks who listed it in their catalogues.
However, he soon realised that only by taking part in competitions would the reels be tested against their rivals and in 1908 a competition was held that he and Scott both entered.
During the next few years there would be an explosion of new ideas from him and in 1911 the first catalogue was ready and states that he is the inventor of “forty-three novelties, mostly pertaining to the Fishing Tackle Trade”
He did manage to invent a grenade launcher and a collapsible armchair for use on submarines and other ships that would also double as a life preserver.
During the war, various articles were written by Wadham on how to catch eels, endorsed by the government due to the food shortages.
Between the wars Wadham worked with his son Walton and set up Wight Manufacturing Company which was not only become the holding company for Percy Wadham Specialities but also encompassed a cast concrete operation and was granted patent 581676 on January 11th, 1945.
He died on 14th November 1945 it looks like he had a heart attack. He had been fishing at Folly on the river Medina with friends. He walked up to the bus stop at Whippingham Post Office when he collapsed and died about 5.35 pm.
Albert Percy Scott
Albert “Percy” Scott was born on 26th September 1872 in Newport to a typical middle-class family; his father, John William Scott, a tea dealer and draper who would later become an inspector of taxes at the Inland Revenue.
Scott was listed in the 1891 census as having “no occupation” but he was apprenticed to the agricultural engineering company called The Lukely Engineering Company and although he had known Wadham from school days it was here that the two men met and formed the friendship that would lead to the starting up of the Dreadnought Casting Reel Company. In 1898 he is listed in the local trade directory as a Cycle repairer at Trafalgar road very near to the Lukely Works.
He set himself up in business supplying bicycles and was reputably the first person on the Island to fit pneumatic tyres.
In June 1900 his cycle building business was experiencing some difficulty and a receiver was appointed. By 1901 he was listed as a Cycle Engineer again at Trafalgar Road and by 1904 was a Cycle manufacturer. With the advent of the motor age it was not that hard for an experienced and skilled engineer to convert to a motor engineer as Scott Engineering Ltd.
He continued to work with Lukely Works in some capacity as evident by the fact that they were manufacturing the weed cutters.
According to his grandson he built his own three-wheeler car with his own designed gearbox which was later sold to a company that patented it and called it the “Sturmey Archer Gearbox.” He also designed a folding landing net the idea being sold to Hardy Brothers. It transpired that Scott was on a train on his way to a casting competition when he met and shared a compartment with John James Hardy and he showed him his new idea for a landing net. By the time the journey had ended JJ had bought the patent idea from Scott.
With the outbreak of the First World War his engineering company with its capacity for precision engineering was sub-contracted by S.E Saunders (later Saunders & Roe aircraft builders) at East Cowes making boat and aircraft parts.
By the end of the war the company was carrying out all types of work and were now listed as mechanical engineers. Between the two wars the company continued to make reels and the weed cutters and specialised in agricultural machinery working out of the factory in Orchard Street.
The Scott Company would continue to manufacture the reels in their own engineering workshops.
Albert Scott was a better caster than Percy Wadham and we see that in the 1910 Casting competition when he broke the world record only to have it disqualified as he had not measured his rod correctly. He had discounted the rod butt button.
He made the Dreadnought and Simplex weed cutters that were invented by Percy Wadham.
He died on 9th July 1935 aged 62 at Selworthy House Lugely street Newport. In July the fishing Gazette carried his obituary stating that he had made a gold-plated fishing reel to the order of a French fishing firm that was presented to George V on his coronation. A gold-plated Coronation reel would be something to behold but alas I have tried to locate it but to no avail., it would almost certainly have been commissioned by Henry Selby of Au Pêcheur Ecossais.
The occasional reel continued to be made by Scott’s engineering company with John Scott, Percy Scott’s son, managing the company. During WWII, they made jettison tanks and other parts for the Spitfire aircraft. The engineering works continued into the late 1950s making refrigeration parts for the J. S. White shipyard and although some reels were made they were not for general sale.
John Scott closed the engineering works and sold fishing tackle from the front room of his house which was the front of the old engineering works. The tackle shop was called Scotties, which was later sold and moved to other premises.
AP Scott was an accomplished amateur artist with a few of his prolific output being saved from the bomb fire.