Jim Bruce & Ken Walker are a force to be reckoned with in the rod building industry. Jim’s apprenticeship was under the demanding watchful eye of his father who ran B. James of London. Jim took over B. James, and by 1963 the cane market was giving way to fibreglass and the business transported itself to Cambridgeshire, when Jim met Ken so to speak. Pioneers in the graphite rod development, we focus here on the Hexagraph rods they rolled themselves. Quality and British handmade blanks were the order of the day against the surge from the Far East with their inferior quality rods. The Hexagra ..read more

Well, what a valuation day that was! We always love a good valuation day at Thomas Turner but this was different. Normally we get around half a dozen people arranging times to see us on the Saturday and then a few more arrive unnannounced. This time we had the usual 5 or 6 people arranging times to see us but we could almost treble that with the amount of people that arrived unannounced – which was brilliant to see! We always love surprises and Sportfish came up trumps again! We always aim to arrive just before 9am when Jonathan Randal and his crew arrive to open the front door. Already there ..read more

Back in December 2022 we published a blog ‘Robert Marrs, rod builder 1886 – 1964’. The information in this blog was provided to us by a TT customer Stuart Maxwell who had purchased a Robert Marrs rod from us to give to his son-in-law who was a member of the Marrs family. Just recently, we were contacted by Robert Hunter Marrs, who is the Grandchild of the Robert Marrs, the rod builder. He had come across our blog and wanted to provide us with more information about him, which was fantastic! And we of course snapped up this opportunity! The article below has been put together by Robert Hunter M ..read more

They say Spring is in the air but here in the West Country all we seem to get is the cold and lots of rain! Not to dampen our spirits, Thomas Turner have kicked March off well with some great buys including one in Europe. A call from a gentleman in Germany got us excited when he said he had a collection of excellent J S Sharpe Impregnated cane Salmon rods, complete with their original bags and tags. After some negotiation a deal was agreed and the collection of Sharpes rods made their way across the channel to our office in the West Country. The seller wasn’t wrong, they are all fabulous rods ..read more

I always look forward to receiving my bi-monthly copy of Classic Angling soon to reach its 150th edition. Many congratulations to editor and publisher Keith Elliott for this very considerable achievement. Just how Keith manages to put together such a cornucopia of fascinating material to fill over 50 pages each edition is beyond me. What I do know is that this is the one magazine where I can honestly say I read every word. This is both for my own enjoyment of the articles, to increase my knowledge and also to keep in touch with the vagaries and trends in the market-place. In the March edition ..read more

Not quite in drones but it has been a busy few weeks at Thomas Turner and our buyers (both of us!) have been busy scouring the globe (literally) considering some incredible collections of vintage and also more modern tackle being offered to us. Most of these are coming from long time collectors who feel now is the time to scale back their collections. Many of these collections are in final negotiations and we hope to be featuring some rather special items over the coming weeks. My own ventures once again around the dreaded M25 unfolded a great collection in Chelsea from a Canadian customer of ..read more

Another interesting few weeks in the world of vintage tackle with the highlight for us involving an unusual and very rare item from the prestigious and highly collectible Farlow brand. An early solid nickel silver reel built for the Great Exhibition? An early Billiken casting reel? Or maybe an early brass multiplying winch script engraved 221 The Strand their first trading address from 1840? All of those would be desirable but the item that caught my attention was surprisingly a piece of ‘brown’ furniture! So why would this be special?  This was no ordinary piece but a bespoke made mahoga ..read more

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust – The River Og Many of you will have heard of the fledging charity Fish in Need. Thomas Turner have supported the charity and I am a trustee along with our Chair, Simon Clark and Professor Mark Everard, John Bailey, Paul Whitehouse and my daughter Kirsty Hewitt. We are a small charity albeit with larger ambitions and I am delighted to advise that our first project has been completed.  This cements our determination to do as much as we can for projects that improve the habitats of our waters for fish and other wildlife. The River Og is an important tributary of the ..read more

Here at Thomas Turner we are delighted to supply avid collectors and first-time buyers alike. We have a huge range of vintage and modern fishing tackle at all price points from the fairly common, but still interesting, tackle to much sought-after rarities. We can help advise you or try to seek out that particular item you are looking for. We also buy, to of course keep our stock of fishing tackle turning over on a regular basis so let us know if you have something interesting. My interest as I’ve mentioned before started because of my Dad buying an old Hardy rod in a Bric a Brac shop in the ea ..read more

Hello everyone, I would like to introduce myself, my name is Paul James. I moved down from Sunderland, in the cold northeast, to the slightly warmer area of Weston super Mare, Somerset, 34 years ago. I have been fishing over forty-six years as it is one of my guilty pleasures, as well as my love for Rugby. I started my fishing at the age of eight. Where I would go to the pier in Sunderland and go sea fishing with friends and family. I would go and try and catch all types of fish, such as Plaice, Herring, and Mackerel. On occasions I would go out with my great uncle on his trawler boat. He was ..read more