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Angling Projects first came about in 1976. The Project Group’s principle aim was to educate youngsters in the art of angling, and at the time we could only hold angling education courses on borrowed lakes and school halls. The late Jack Ashford, a great supporter who was then the LSA manager (now known as Cemex) and he allowed the use of LSA venues for one day angling courses free of charge.In 1988, through the efforts of Terry Catliffe (Director of RMC and Leisure Sport Ltd., now called Cemex) Angling Projects was given the use of the old Kingsmead sailing club house and lake next to the RMC gravel workings at Wraysbury. After much repair (paid for out of our own pockets) and a name change to Angling Projects, we had our own facilities and started educational courses for youngsters with the support of local tackle shops who donated fishing tackle and bait. |
Les Webber MBE |
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1988 was also the year we adopted our slogan “GETS KIDS HOOKED ON FISHING NOT DRUGS OR CRIME” and started a lasting relationship with the Metropolitan and Thames Valley Police and with local schools. At first only a 100 or so children were catered for but today we have over 2,000 youngsters visiting the centre every year. They come from all over the country and have various, complicated and difficult backgrounds. Their stay can be one to seven days.
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Disaster struck in 1990 when mindless vandals torched the centre to the ground, needless to say we did not have insurance and with only £240 in the bank the future looked very bleak, but with only will-power and a strong desire to give children at risk a secure environment we made the decision to rebuild the centre. |
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Second-hand building material came flooding in and people started to send in donations after they read about our tragedy in local papers. Today we have a purpose-built centre worth thousands and the envy of many an organisation all built by the Angling Projects Team. |
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Building work on the centre |
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BTEC students working on the new re-build as part of their BTEC studies. |
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Learning to fit Pole elastic. |
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Fun learning at the waterside, fishing, team building, wildlife and watercraft |
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Les outside the centre |