1939 Aerial Match Centrepin Reel Final Words.

[Fredline]

I asked Garry Mills about the 1939 Aerial Match centrepin reel numbers a few years ago and he said it was not a numbering system, just a means of spool plate identification. A run of 200 has been mentioned in the past and we look once again to the Gospel of Garry Mills , "They made more than that".
As for the "Plates/Moulds" for this reel being moved to Birmingham for the duration of the war, Watermole has very firmly put that one to bed. It is an urban myth. Garry Mills was talking to Ted Young at one of the first Redditch Tackle Fairs when they first heard this story and he said it made both of them smile. The machinery used to make these reels was kept at Youngs Mayfield Works for the war effort and there was no need to move the small amount of casting apparatus used in the making of the 1939 Aerial Match, that was probably reassigned.
All Youngs Aerial reels are cast and then finished on a lathe. All Youngs Aerial reels are stamped on the inner and outer flange for spool identification with the exception of the C815 and C340. On some of the earlier Aerials the reel foot had an identification number stamped, these marks very rarely corresponded with the spool markings.
So why were so few made? Obviously the outbreak of war was a huge factor. Were the casting moulds destroyed? Probably but by Youngs themselves as they would have been surplus to requirements with the advent of the C815. Again we also look to the sage words of Watermole and the fact that with post war austerity when manufacturing starting again in earnest everyone wanted modern. The Festival of Britain 1951 is a classic example of post war change. The Aerial reel needed an update for the new post war Britain and the C815 was born in 1949. Some will say this was a brave move, purists will say it was a disaster but either way it was a quite radical change of design for the Aerial.
The Aerial centrepin reel was no longer the "Top Dog" it had competition and a lot of it in the shape of the fixed spool reel.
A lot of Youngs efforts were undoubtably put into the manufacture and promotion of their Ambidex range of reels to compete in this new market, with the Aerial almost left as an afterthought until a resurgence in the mid 1960's with the C340, the Billy Lane centrepin, a beautiful final fling from the Youngs stable from an idea by Peter Coe, Sebastian's dad, who was Works Manager in charge of production and planning.
So there you are, hopefully this all makes sense. You can never be 100% accurate but applying logic and asking the right people you can come to a far more logical assumption with regards to "The Tale of the 1939 Aerial Match Centrepin Reel".

[Paul F]

Thanks John, that is good enough for me

[Jeremy Croxall]

Fascinating stuff, enjoyed reading that!

[Paul D]

Fascinating stuff, enjoyed reading that!

Indeed, thanks for that

[PershoreHarrier]

I believe it was normal practice when machining castings that were going to become a matched pair that they were machined together so that everything aligned correctly when they were assembled. This is certainly the case with British motorcycle crankcases for example ( Nortons, BSA etc.) and each set of castings would be identified with a stamped number to indicate they were matched.

The importance of this in terms of fishing tackle came home to me when I bought two apparently identical C815 reels and discovered that whilst they were fine individually you could not switch the back plates with the line spools.

[Lea Dweller]

Well done John, your information makes good sense to me, you have certainly done some research including speaking to some people who should know. As with many issues relating to “Aerials” you can only find out so much “truth” and opinions will always vary, such is life!

[Nobby]

Spot on, John. This reflects what I'd come to think myself. Post war Britain was a bit of a miserable place and everybody wanted a new bright future to look forward to. You should see the way my Mum and Dad decorated out flat! I don't think there's many things that were made before the War and continued after it, unchanged.

Certainly not in the world of fishing tackle. Not just the Aerial reels, but the Perfection Flick Em too( though the name lived on in the form of a badge on the new Rapidex).

It's also interesting to note that the re-emergence of fishing tackle manufacturing didn't happen overnight, post War. I have both Milward and Allcock 1940's catalogues here which talk, in the preface, of not all items listed being available yet...and they are preciously thin anyway!

Fishing tackle had barely got going again before the appearance of glass fibre, which Allcock wasted a whole year on in pre-production, before abandoning the whole lot, bar an expensive spinning rod, and one gets the impression that they didn't really know what to do in the post War period, except design, design, design. And then it all went wrong anyway.

Ted Young's suggestion to Leonard Matchan that he look at buying out Allcocks as well as re-financing his firm, yet again, was the beginning of the end.