This interview began as an idea to learn the secrets of Garnet’s success as a fisherman as he is a legend on the river. However, it turned out to be so much more. A rich vein of stories with knowledge and experience gained from growing up in a country village, Betley on the Staffordshire border and working as an environmental officer for British Rail in the 1970’s
When Garnet was a boy, living in a country village meant that your pastimes were ferreting and fishing.He and his friend Tommy Malkin would spend hours fishing and it was something that was “in your blood”, if you had the will to stay at the water, catch or no catch for hours on end. Garnet began with course fishing for carp,roach or pike and they would travel to Vyrnwy on a motor bike getting off every 12-15 miles to warm up! They would catch trout and sell it to local restaurants . On one of these expeditions Garnet managed to get a salmon on the line when the ghillie happened to arrive and ,not having a licence for salmon had to put his first ever ( the first of more than 2,270) salmon back in the water.(These days all the salmon are fished on a catch and release basis).
Garnet did a degree in environmental health at Warwick University together with a module on tropical diseases( which would come in very handy). After this he became one of the 5 pest control officers for British Rail, responsible for keeping rodents and birds from threatening the health and safety of operations in all its stations nationally.
On one occasion he and his colleague travelled to London when the station master asked him to go to a call out from a property bordering the railway line which involved a snake.
“It’s a python”, says the old Colonel with the confidence of a man used to such creatures. Garnet and colleague approached the pile of sacking on the floor armed with the protective clothing issued by British Rail for all eventualities ,(ie.none) ,picked up the sack and sure enough a python wrapped itself around his arm and shoulders with all its natural defences kicking in. Can you imagine the fuss made today? The pair managed to get the creature safely into a sack and caught the train (with one of them off to Ascot races!) with the snake beneath their seats. Opposite them sat a small boy with his mother who could see the sack moving and with typical curiosity asked what was in there! His mother swept him off to another carriage after Garnet offered to let him have a look at it. Needless to say it was taken in by Chessington Zoo .I do wonder if a lesser person would have just knocked it on the head with a spade , however ,Garnet’s understanding of animals meant that he felt able to grasp it behind its head, preserving its life. He did say if ever he wakes up in a cold sweat he can still see its beady eyes.
In those days British Rail owned some major hotels such as Gleneagles ,Turnberry, The Midland Hotel in Manchester, the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews and in London Garnet would stay at the Great Northern Hotel at Euston. He would also visit the ports on his pest control travels. On one occasion the sacks of dried fruit were stacked to the rafters in the warehouse and Garnet looked up to the top of the sacks to see the whole body of them swelling and swaying , something had gone wrong with the fumigation process from ship to shore and it was weevils causing the mass movement, he says he has never been able to eat an eccles cake since!(please don’t let that put you off one of the delicious ones in M.E Evans in Overton!)
A factory building whose workers went home covered in bites was dealt with by dust extraction from its nylon flooring and a water mist spray, and the huge problem of starlings and pigeons roosting in railway buildings were solved by Garnet’s pioneering method of roost disturbance . This was vital as the droppings were toxic to the personnel and machinery below. At Derby station the birds were turned away from their roosts on a systematic scare tactic until they decided they would relent and seek alternative accommodation. A compromise between extermination and keeping people and property safe.
The reality is that peoples lives have changed fundamentally in the last century. Historically if you were born in the countryside,you were likely to work in the countryside and grow up understanding how everything interacted and depended on each other . Now only 17% of the population lives in rural areas and even less earn their living there.The recent example of the withdrawal of the General License needed to control predators at nesting time is a case in point. I have loved listening to Garnet’s stories and I would like to think there are more people like him still there to bring common sense ,practicality and humanity to our changing world.
POSTSCRIPT to this article;
Garnet had the lovely experience recently where he was fishing with a friend and his son on the Welsh Dee.Having fixed up the young lad with a fly reel and shown him the flies, off he went . About half an hour later he returned with a brown trout of about a pound.
“What Fly?” asked his father . A shrug of the shoulders was the lad's response.
“Now he knew that I knew,”said Garnet ,”that he had covered the trout for ages before finding a worm under a clod of soil and the rest is history!”
A true fisherman was born.
The picture below was taken at Crewe Station in 1964 when Garnet began working as 'relief' for British Rail.
The main photograph above was taken on beat 4,The Darlands on The Bryn y Pys Estate.
