ARMY SURPLUS CLOTHING

[Bob Brookes]

I could use my old police uniform for night fishing

Except it appears to have shrunk.

I reckon more the poncho and you doing your Demis Roussos impression.

[Aitch]

I really shouldn't look at those sort of websites... I looked on one of the links and have a hankering for an ex-army Land Rover Defender now....
I'll go and have a lie down till the thought of 15-20 mpg goes away... I do like the Goretex gear though... and it's fairly competitively priced when you think of paying over £100 for a dedicated waterproof fishing suit....! I may have to rethink my carping gear as the bib and brace have gone at the crutch.... so maybe a goretex ex army suit will do the job

[Stathamender]

When I was a nipper I used to marvel at the window display of our local Surplus store, apart from the clothing you had all the equipment including watches, knives' compass etc etc. The Army great coats from all forces, Parkas, desert jackets, American air force jackets and of course Docker type trousers and donkey jackets, Tank aerials and old radios, field telephones they were all available at the Surplus store. Ours was called Sams, and was in Woolwich, which was an Army base and the old Arsenal was full of old clothing stores out on the marshes towards Abbeywood. I am not sure if their stock came from there but it certainly came from all over the world.

I lived in Colchester for six years in the 60s and 70s when I was a student (at the then notorious Essex University) and there was a great surplus store there (as one might expect given that the HQ of Eastern Command was in the town as well as the main 'glasshouse'), and then there was the great, now sadly no more, Lawrence Corner shop in London http://www.londonremembers.com/subjects ... al_id=3621.

[Tinca Tinca]

I own a complete belgian ex army uniform including GoreTex (they call it Seyntex..) rainclothing
and I have to say this things are of good quality;and much lighter than dripping wet Tweed...

[Trilob]

I'm not a big fan of the camo prints. In modern carp fishing this is just overdone (electronic alarms with camo print? you got to be kidding me haha.)
But recently I couldn't resist...

[Stathamender]

I'm not a big fan of the camo prints. In modern carp fishing this is just overdone (electronic alarms with camo print? you got to be kidding me haha.)
But recently I couldn't resist...

Did you get a cap with a bell on it to go with it?

[Ian.R.McDonald]

4 pages in and tanks suits have not been mentioned?- its taken me 40 years to forget (almost) how cold heavy and wet they were (and 5 years to get the zips to work and escape!

[Bob Brookes]

4 pages in and tanks suits have not been mentioned?- its taken me 40 years to forget (almost) how cold heavy and wet they were (and 5 years to get the zips to work and escape!

Ian,
But 40 years ago there was very little civilian alternative. My dad was a loco driver and, 50 years ago, his railway issue rain coat was always passed on to an angler.