What's On - Review
In the 1880s a pair of
Northumbrian brothers
started making fly fishing reels and rods with the sort of laborious
care that perfectly suited this gentle and precise sport. Within a
couple of decades they had created a business which was a byword for
excellence, becoming the market town’s biggest employer, and
the
market leader in quality fishing tackle of all sorts, from split cane
fly rods to huge bespoke reels for marlin fishing.
This documentary examines, using modern-day interviews with employees
of the company and old footage, the heyday of Hardy’s, and
its
inevitable modern-age metamorphosis into a different type of company
where mass production of fishing tackle is largely done in the Far East.
The slow-moving, languid style of the documentary suits its subject matter perfectly, and you find yourself transported into another world, when quality products were built with love and care to last forever. It’s not preaching to the converted: while fishermen of all types will delight in this film, it’s geared to the layman, too, as the story it tells is universal. Oh, and it’s beautifully shot, too, and weighted as precisely as an expert cane-rod fly cast.
I asked the film-makers, who are
based in
Selmeston, to send me a review copy, and they kindly obliged.
I’ve already started raving about it. There’s a
happy
ending, too, of sorts, as it looks at a handful of cottage-industry
craftsmen who have stepped into the gap in the market, still using the
laborious techniques and natural materials that made Hardy’s
such
a well-respected company.
©
Alex Leith, Viva Lewes magazine
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