In 1989, Peter McArthur,
a keen trout fisherman, together with several
like-minded colleagues, formed a
trout fishing syndicate in the grounds
of the 1000 acre Cinder Hill
Estate on the edge of Ashdown
Forest, near Horsted Keynes in
West Sussex, with the objective of
providing affordable fishing for
the members.
Initially, only the
first pool below the water
splash at Birch Grove, now known
as the Top Pool, was fished,
following considerable effort to remove all the
trees which were felled in the
Great Storm of 1987, and having established a viable fishery,
the
next pool in the valley, Hurstwood, was
added to the portfolio, followed
a year or two later by the third
in the series of lakes, McArthurs
Pool, in 1992.
Following the 1987 hurricane,
when lots of trees were brought
down on the estate, the
landowners created three smaller
pools at Piplye, namely;
Grubbero Pool, Piplye Pool and
Roundwood Pool. These were
initially run as a private
syndicate of 30 members, but
were incorporated into the Cinder Hill
Trouting Syndicate
in 2006 to create the variety of
waters we have today.
Originally, membership of the
then Salmon and
Trout Association (then Salmon
and Trout Conservation UK and
now simply WildFish) was a
pre-requisite of Syndicate
membership, which brought
membership of the Sussex Branch
of the Association to a very
healthy level and indeed at one time
there was a waiting list for new
Syndicate members.
With the formation of the
Angling Trust in
2009, Syndicate membership was
extended to also include
individual Trust members, but a
decline in the number of anglers
joining the Syndicate in recent
years has led to the relaxation
of these requirements and
membership is no longer
restricted to members of WilFish and/or the Angling Trust and
is now open to anyone.
Thankfully this has led to a
reversal of the drop in numbers
which is now looking quite
healthy, with the original
objective of affordable fly
fishing still being the driving
force of Cinder Hill Fly Fishing,
which is now completely
independent of any other organisation.
Up to the end of 2015 the
Syndicate was operated by the
Branch, but following an
Inaugural General Meeting of
members in October 2015, from
2016, the Syndicate became
completely autonomous, managing
it's affairs under the
control of it's own management
committee and in
2019, we adopted the working
title of "Cinder Hill Fly
Fishing" in order to make
membership more attractive to
potential members.
However, we still support the
work of WildFish, the Angling
Trust and Fish Legal, and in
association with these organisations, we
attend a number of events each
year to promote fly fishing
and the wellbeing of the fish we
hope to catch.
While membership of these
worthy causes which work to
protect and preserve fish,
fishing and the waters in which
they swim is no longer
mandatory, we would urge all
Cinder Hill Fly Fishing members,
if not already a member, to
consider joining one, the other,
or even all three.
Interested in joining Cinder Hill Fly Fishing?
Follow the "Membership
& Fees" link in the menu.
Details of our programme for
the current year are available
here.
To visit the WildFish website,
please click
here.
To
visit the
Angling Trust website, please
click
here.
To
visit the
Fish Legal website, please
click
here.
For a copy of
our
General Data Protection
Regulations Privacy Notice,
please click
here.
For a copy of
our
Constitution Document,
please click
here.
A
listing of Trout Fisheries in
the South East of the UK can be
viewed / downloaded
here.
