Brown was succeeded by his son, Arther, who had achieved the distinction when a boy of catching a 2lb 6oz tench, the first ever taken at the fishery. In 1885, he recorded the capture by Arthur Cousens, a redoubtable angler of the largest trout ever caught on the club water, a monster of 123/4lb. The White House on the New River where he caught the fish still exists at the top of the stretch above New River Head, near Hertford. By 1910, the club had two full-time river keepers and fourteen river watchers. Keeper Ernest Gaunt who succeeded Brown, in 1902, had been in service at Blenheim Palace. He inaugurated and ran the fisher’s own trout hatcheries. Mr W.E. Brown, whose father was a member before World War One speaks of how, ”Gaunt the bailiff, taught me to cast at the age of twelve and we often stayed in the cottage which was all quite deightful, and I well remember Mrs, Gaunt's cooking". Gaunt remained keeper until 1930, but during World War Two the days of the full-time keeper came to an end largely on the grounds of expense.

The fourteen years from the turn of the century to the outbreak of World War One were notable ones for the Amwell Magna Fishery. The club’s waters were at their most extensive stretching from Ware to Stanstead Abbots on the River Lea, and from New River Head and the Pumping Engine at Hertford to Brookfield Lane, Chesthunt on the New River. Two uniformed river keepers and fourteen river watchers looked after the waters, served the members and guarded against poachers, both human and animal.

Most of the human poaching took place at the Ware end of the river, and offenders were put into court where they were usually fined £2 or two months imprisonment. The animal poachers were either herons or otters. A river watcher trapping a heron received 25p reward while an otter was worth a guinea (£1.05p). The club could afford a veritable army of river keepers and watchers because labour costs were incredibly low by modern standards. When keeper Brown retired in 1902 his weekly wage of one guinea was the same as when he started twenty-one years previously. As late as 1930 his successor, Earnest Gaunt, was only paid the equivalent of £1.85 a week.

The fourteen years also saw a significant change in the fish caught and in the method of fishing. Although trout had been fished for from the beginning, the main quarry in the nineteenth century was the jack. As late as 1890 only eleven trout were caught compared to 180 jack and various roach, perch, chub, dace and bream.

The club had experimented with trout breading as early as 1855 and still has two five-inch specimens in a case to prove it. In 1855, 200 trout were placed in the Cottage Pool, and by 1887 yearling trout were being regularly purchased to stock mainly the New River. Some 650 trout delivered to St Margaret’s railway station in 1907 cost £47.75. The charge for the man who delivered them was 50p.

After 1900, trout fishing became predominant, and the old mixed fishing methods of bait, live minnow or spinning were replaced by the set of casting the fly. And what remarkable fish were caught!

In 1906-7 the 124 trout caught weighted 347lb, and average of almost 3lb. Then in 1910 John Allen caught a 10 1/2 pounder in

Amwell Tank on the New River, that fish now cased, resides in the Hertford Museum along with other fish caught on the fishery.

The club had only two secretaries between the wars, but, unfortunately, their fishery minutes and fishing records are missing. Only a few accounts and fishery handbooks of rules and regulations remain. It is clear, however, that the club resumed breeding its own fish and regularly ordered 6000 trout ova every year. The club’s waters remained undiminished while members continued to stay overnight in the Fishery House. Many members still come from London with such prestigious addresses as the Junior Carlton Club, Wimpole Street, Harley Street, Grosvenor Gardens and South Kensington. The last stocking before the outbreak of World War Two was for 300 13in trout and 750 6in.

An immediate consequence of the war was the termination of the club’s lease of the New River for security reasons, but the club retained the Lea. In 1941, during the grimmest days of the war, the club was still irrepressibly trying to regain the fishing rights to the New River. The club wrote to the Metropolitan Water Board pointing out that its membership included an admiral, two lieutenant colonels and a major. At the time, the danger of Fifth Columnists was very much in the public mind, and the club argued that its officer members of senior rank not only deserved some recreational fishing but would protect the New River from Fifth Columnists!

Needless to say the request was turned down as was another in 1944. The fishing was restored in 1946, but a year later, because of the high rent and insecurity of tenure the club terminated its 105 year old connection with the New River. It was a bad decision, and one can only surmise that the members were unaware that from the turn of the century the best trout fishing had come from the New River.

The club thus moved into the post-war era with the task of turning the old Lea into a good trout fishery. A sound start was made with a five-year plan which envisaged extensive stocking, a griddled stop above Stanstead Abbots to compound the fish and the planting of 500,000 mayfly -

Members come to watch the stocking 1950s. Hon Sec W.H. Marley on left with Tourine, Cousines and Gardieer behind on left. Keeper Fox 2nd left on lorry.

- ova to encourage fish to rise in the mayfly season in each May. The year 1948 was a wonderful one when 349 trout were taken. From 1954 to 1963, 2255 trout were caught averaging 225 fish a season. One looks back to the pre-1914 days with nostalgia but it is fair to say that those days when a few fisherman caught a few big trout have been supplanted by more fisherman catching many, many more trout albeit not so large.

The club was now, however, approaching the most critical decade in its long history. In September 1965, sixty gallons of concentrated cyanide escaped from a factory into the foul sewer, and the river was polluted from Ware downwards. Over 2500 fish died, mainly minnows but also probably some of the trout still in the river at Ware at the end of the season. The offending firm ultimately gave the Amwell Magna £100 towards restocking. Other problems quickly followed; keepering, stocking, fishing rights, gravel winning, flood alleviation schemes and plans for the Lea Valley National Park.

The club now relied on the lock keepers on a casual basis for keepering.