DR BELL OF WRINGTON
PIONEER OF RESERVOIR NYMPH FLY FISHING (1888-1974)
RECOLLECTIONS OF DR BELL - Page 1
The reminiscences recorded on this and the other 'recollections' pages together help to paint a more detailed portrait of Dr Bell. He was a complex character who had firm ideas on many subjects, was single-minded in his endeavours and had little patience with those he considered were wasting his time. He also had a deep affection for animals, was a perfectionist in all he set his hand to, hated being in the limelight and was cultured in his tastes. Some of his ideas would perhaps be considered quirky these days (maybe he was right!) – and some would suggest that he was even a little eccentric.
Having said that, he was a dedicated, skilled and much-loved physician; he survived the horrors and deprivations of two World Wars and lived to the ripe old age of 86; and he almost singlehandedly changed the face of reservoir fly fishing with his revolutionary flies and techniques. His methods have been much modified and improved upon by those who followed after him, but it was Dr Bell who did all the groundwork and set the scene for nymph fishing tactics that have been adopted by millions of fly anglers, not only in England but across the globe.
There are grounds to argue that had he been prolific with pen and paper he might have been as well-known and placed on a similarly elevated pedestal alongside such angling notables as Walton, Halford, Skues and a very few others who were truly innovative. That is how significant were his developments. But that was not Dr Bell's way – all he wanted was to be left alone to fish in peace and solitude for his trout.
DR HOWARD ALEXANDER BELL
An appreciation collated by Steve Taylor for The Bristol Buzzer, the Bristol Water newsletter for fly-fishermen
He conducted post-mortems on thousands of trout that were caught at Blagdon, to see what they were eating, and then he tied flies to resemble these creatures. If he hadn't been such a private and reticent individual, Dr Howard Alexander Bell would be as famous and revered in the history of stillwater fly fishing as Halford, Skues and Sawyer are in the annals of river fly fishing.
Not just the inventor of a few good flies - to his credit are the Amber Nymph, the Grenadier, the Blagdon Buzzer - but a pioneer who realised that, by imitating insects that the trout of his beloved Blagdon expected to see and eat, and by presenting them in the way they were expected to behave - moving very slowly indeed, he had arrived at vastly superior method of catching fish.
Just as he left an indelible mark on the development of modern stillwater trout fishing, so those for whom he was first and foremost the local GP in Wrington, Blagdon and surrounding villages remember him with deep affection as a remarkable and original man.
Reproduced by kind permission of Steve Taylor
RECOLLECTIONS OF DR BELL
by Valerie Yeoman
Dr Bell was handsome, gruff, straight to the point, he didn't suffer fools gladly, but he was always kindly. He had a cold bath every day. Dr and Mrs. Bell never washed their hair- they used to rub it with a clean towel every day.
There were no carpets or curtains in his house - he thought they harboured dust - and he always wore crepe - soled shoes, which squeaked on the highly polished floorboards. There was a wonderful smell in his house, because he used to "put up" all the medicines in there.
He walked to the top of Wrington Hill every day - so much slow walking, so much fast walking. He loved his garden, and he had his apple trees pruned and trained so that you could pick apples standing on the floor. Their dogs were always named after Scottish rivers. They never celebrated Christmas, only New Year.
Having been called out twice to see a neighbour's son, as he came out of the house he was heard to mutter: "What that child needs is Tantrum Tablets." When I came home from the nursing home with my first child, who weighed only 5lbs 12oz and was suffering from jaundice, Dr Bell paid us a visit. When he unwrapped her he burst out laughing. Asked why, he said that she reminded him of Gandhi, but it was said in a kindly way. He would often bring a bottle of whiskey or stout to elderly patients who couldn't have afforded it. When he visited at home he would pick up the family cat and toss it on the bed.
Reproduced by kind permission of the Wrington Archive