Old Dick Perrott: A chip off the block

by Colin Burbidge

Richard Perrott, eldest son of James Perrott was born in 1840. He would follow in his Father’s footsteps as a wheelwright, Dartmoor guide and a supreme fisherman.

The Upper Teigh River near Chagford

 In a 1932 interview with the “Western Times “he recalled helping his father as a youngster take the Rev. Alfred Earle (later Dean of Exeter and Bishop of Marlborough) on a day’s fishing on the Teign. Richard carried the Reverend’s lunch basket and rod, and they caught 62 trout that day. As he got into his carriage, he gave Richard half a sovereign “I had never been so rich in my life” he declared. In the same interview he recalled that on his 80th birthday, he walked 8 miles and caught 18 trout.

“Trout are not so numerous as in the old days. They were more plentiful when the lead mines at Christow prevented the salmon from getting into the upper reaches. On one occasion I killed 1000 trout in 10 days and on one day alone, 122. I started at 5 a.m. and finished at 2p.m. It is not the neatest fly that kills. The modern fly is too small. Fish rise to them but do not take.”

 The cause of the pollution in the Teign, was the Wheal Exmouth mine at Christow. Developed in 1850 to mine lead and barytes. At its height it had 70 underground workers.

In 1878 the “Western Times” devoted a full column, to this problem.

“No fish, of course could withstand this deadly torrent of noxious washings of virgin ore.

A short period of such pestilence sufficed to destroy all animal life in the doomed river, and as no salmon were able to make their way from the sea to their breeding grounds, the Teign might be struck off the roll of England’s salmon rivers”.

Due to cheaper imports, Wheal Exmouth at Christow was shut down in 1880.

His finest skill was the making of small, intricate flies for fishermen. Among his customers for flies were, Charles Dickens, Baring Gould, Lord Grey of Falloden, R.D. Blackmore and Charles Kingsley.

In 1934, 2 years before his death, Old Dick read of the forthcoming marriage of Princess Marina of Greece to the Duke of Kent. He took it upon himself to make a salmon and trout fly in royal colours, and sent them, in a presentation box to the Princess.

He duly received this royal reply:

“The Duchess of Kent desires me to thank Mr. Richard Perrott for his wedding gift of trout and salmon flies. Her Royal Highness is greatly touched by the gift, and amazed that Mr. Perrott should be able to do such fine work without the aid of glasses”.

 Richard Perrott died on May 1st, 1936 aged 96.

'Old Perrott' - A Chagford Worthy

by Colin Burbidge

James Perrott was born in the parish of Throwleigh in 1815. The family moved shortly after to Chagford, where he remained his entire life, until his death in 1895. According to Edward Barnwell’s Notes on the Perrott Family, he was from an ancient family of Norman ancestry.

 In 1839 he married Mary Harvey, they would go on to have four sons and three daughters. His wife’s family were descended from Sir Robert Jason, whose 1588 coat-of-arms James Perrott is said to have kept on the wall of his home.

 Census records show him as a wheelwright, and later three of his sons also as worked wheelwrights. It is not until the 1891 census that he is recorded as a Fishing tackle manufacturer. However, his son, Richard later recalled in an article in the Western Times that they would make fishing rods from old lancewood spokes salvaged from damaged or old coach wheels.

 James was for over 50 years a Dartmoor touring guide, a renown angler and a maker of fine fishing tackle and flies, such as Blue Grizzle, Red Palmer, Blue Upright and Red Maxwell.

In 1869 he joined the newly formed Upper Teign Fishing Association, chaired by the Earl of Devon and including many of the riparian landowners of the Upper Teign, including Rev. John Ingle, owner of St. Olaves, Murchington. Perrott carried out the role of water bailiff for them and supervised the care and condition of the river and its banks, in addition to selling Day Permits to anglers.

 He was a supreme angler and encouraged many a well-known client. The writer Charles Kingsley was a regular companion, as was novelist R.D. Blackmore who fictionalised Perrott in some of his novels, and he is also featured in Fisherman’s Fancies by F.B. Doveton. On their golden wedding in October 1889 Mr. & Mrs. Perrott received a congratulatory address from the townspeople of Chagford.

Upon the news of his death in May 1895 the editor of the Western Morning News launched into fulsome praise:

 “Rugged, frank and of cheery disposition, his sterling worth caused him to be respected by those who made his acquaintance. There was not a tor or hill to which he could not conduct his visitors, nor a stream in which he knew not the pools and stickles most likely to afford sport. A deft fisherman himself and entering keenly into the pleasures of the gentle art, he was always desirous that those who accompanied him should realise the delight of returning with a well filled creel”.

 In Chagford churchyard there is a polished granite tomb, erected to the memory of this Dartmoor worthy, by the Rev. A.G. Barker, one of Ingle’s successor’s as owner of St. Olaves, Murchington.

 His son, Richard carried on his father’s work as Dartmoor guide, expert angler, and tackle maker throughout a long life – he died aged 96 years.

 For a fuller account see Devon perspectives.