Hardy Factory Tour 1980

[dblspey]

With all the questions and concerns about the future of one of the world's best known reel makers I thought a bit of the past might be of interest. A friend took a tour of the Hardy factory in 1980 and he gave me an album of photos he took that day.

The river Aln



The old factory



The new factory



Jim Hardy and Ian Blagburn



Moulding







Machining















Meanwhile, in the rods department

[turtledoc]

That was really cool to see......and Thanks for sharing !

Mark B

[henrysdad]

Awesome pix!

I have an odd story about Hardy and Alnwick. I have fly fished for years and used a lot of hardy reels, but I had no idea how to pronounce Alnwick. I met my non-fishing wife over 10 years ago. As I gradually told her more about my passion, I mentioned Hardy and Alnwick. She lived and travelled a ton in Europe, so I asked her if she was familiar with Hardy' s hometown, but she didn't know what I was talking about because I was mispronouncing the name of the town. Finally, she happened to see a Hardy case lying around around and made the connection. Turned out she lived in Alnwick Castle most of her sophomore year in college. That same castle also happens to be the model for the Hardy logo. I asked her then if she was aware of Hardy' s presence in town, but she hadn't heard of Hardy while living there, but she did recall the Duke of Nothumberland (who resided in the castle) fishing quite a bit.

Fast forward to your post...my wife immediately recognized.that section of town, in part because of the Esso gas station.

As a side benefit for me, my wife cherishes her time spent in Alnwick..consequently, any Hardy tackle that comes in our front door gets a free pass.
Tom

[stlhdr1st]

i second that !thanks for sharing!

[salmonfly]

It is very nice to see that piece of history, thank you.

[jhuskey]

Fantastic post dblspey! Thanks!

Tom, what is the correct way to pronounce Alnwick?

[oddsnrods]

Nice photos, thanks. Alnwick is pronounced ' Ann-ick' . The castle is owned by the Percy family and is still lived in by the family, one of the few inhabited castles in the UK. The castle is also stars in the Harry Potter films plus a few others. My daughter and I visited Alnwick eight years ago and were given a personal tour of the factory. The foundry had gone and there seemed to be little manufacturing going on, the rods that we saw were being made on imported graphite blanks. No reel making that we saw. There was talk of making graphite parts for the aerospace industry. We were shown the cane rodmaking dept. in which nothing seemed to be going on, or had been for a while. The fellow who showed us around was very pleasant and generous with his time and was charming to my young daughter. The museum in the Hardy building was well worth seeing with many fine examples of rods and reels. The shop also was well laid out and well stocked. I recognised a few of the faces of workers in the posted photos, they also feature in the 1987 Hardy film The Manufacture of Fly Rods and Reels which they sold as a video. They show all of the stages of making a Marquis reel plus a Ocean Prince. Worth finding a copy if you can. The Esso station is not there anymore.