A brief history of
‘The Stick Man’.
Website Address. http://www.uksticks.com
In 1980 I moved from Middlesbrough to Helmsley, North Yorkshire, to work on a Rainbow Trout Farm. I had always been keen on fishing and thought that this would be an interesting occupation to do until I found a ‘proper job’!
Fortunately for me I met a wonderful girl who worked in the riding stables and we married in 1983. Around the same time I was promoted to Farm Manager.
My interest in fishing waned - working with fish every day took away the ‘magic’ for me. Instead, I took up shooting and began ‘bush beating’ on the local pheasant shoot. Each beater carries a stick for tapping trees and bushes to drive birds forward to waiting Guns. So began my acquaintance with sticks.
In 1985 my wife, Jacky, bought me a stick sporting a Labrador head. I thought this was too good to take beating but it inspired me to make my own stick, with a pheasant head. After two or three failures I made one I was happy with and regularly took it beating.
One day, the Arch Duke of Austria (who often shot at Helmsley) noticed my stick and asked me to make him one. I did so for £20. I made a few others for friends, and also managed a few for myself! In 1990 I was asked to make a cock pheasant stick to be presented to King Constantine of Greece, who was in a shooting party at Helmsley. We had a silver band made and engraved with the name of the shoot and the date. I fitted the band between the head and the stick.
In the following years I continued to increase my knowledge and skills, trying other materials such as antler and horn. Early in 1998 I joined ‘Brigantia’, an organisation of local crafts people. I started advertising and selling my sticks at local country shows and became convinced that I could turn my hobby into a living, but was scared to give up my manager’s job on the trout farm and take the risk.
In June 1998 I had a car accident. I blacked out while driving and smashed up the car. I was unharmed, but it made me realise how fragile life is and provided the extra inspiration I needed to change my life. Tests showed that I had developed epilepsy, so had to stop driving for a year while drugs were tested to prevent more seizures.
I was totally fed up at the trout farm and the following year, when a craft workshop became available at The Helmsley Walled Garden, I gave in my notice and rented the workshop where I now make my living making sticks and running classes in stick making, teaching others this fascinating craft.