Club History

For many years local fisherman in Lee-on-the-Solent had kept their boats on the foreshore at the base of the crumbling cliffs. These boats were left unattended and unsecured. Gear was seldom tampered with and if a passer-by saw a rope, oar or anchor laying out of the vessel they would put it back in.

Towards the end of the 1950s coastal erosion was such that the Local Authority had to take remedial action and the boat owners were forced to remove their craft. Several people got together and approached the Council with a view to renting a piece of land for boat storage. The Council's reaction was to tell them to form some sort of association or club as they could not lease land to individuals. After a meeting at a local pub the Elmore Angling Club was formed in August 1959 and a section of the cliff lands leased from the council. (Elmore being the name of the Eastern area of Lee-on-the-Solent).

The following year the first boat competition was held and a few years later beach matches were introduced. The club had no premises and meetings were held in local clubs, pubs and restaurants. In the Sixties a building fund was established and through jumble sales, "Wills Of The Week" and similar schemes, a sum in excess of £70 was raised. The club was granted the use of a wooden hut in the grounds of a local pub and spent many happy years there until the death of the landlord which forced a move to a party room in a Gosport pub. This provided the spur to the building fund and an approach was made to the Council who agreed to lease the club the prime site that we now occupy. The building was started in April 1978 and the first pint pulled in December 1979 (a 32p pint of Bitter!)

The first hole is dug - April 1978	The first pint is pulled by Mayor Ron Dimmer - December 1979
Some of the club members who helped construct the club house having a well earned tea-break.