The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

As these three (two?) makers all seem to have existed side by side I thought it might be an idea to gather information on their relative existences.

I have many old mags/newspapers and just taking an Angling Time from 1959 some clues emerge.

Advert for Edgar Sealey states "Say Octopus for hooks and Rods", Edgar Sealey & Sons, Brockhill Works, Redditch.

Also adverts for E Sealey Octopus Range in Billy Clarke ad:
Octofloat, Octofloat Deluxe, Rover Deluxe, Octopus Match, Octopus Supreme, Floatcaster.

Also (same ad.) Sealey Gold Seal De Luxe spinning & pike rods.

Chubbs of Edgware:

R Sealey: Rapidstrike, Matchwinner

DaceAce wrote:Chubbs of Edgware:

R Sealey: Rapidstrike, Matchwinner

Now that's interesting - my Precision R. Sealey "Festival" has a Chubbs of Edgware label on the butt, just above the Precision black shield. I wonder if they were main stockists for Precision?

Bernard Sealey and Precision Rods seem to have been the same firm and both produced rods bearing the same address on the transfer. They made both cane and 'glass rods under both names so it doesn't seem that one name was changed to the other, more that they were the same company. R.Sealey is the name written on to some of their rods, suggesting the rod is his design.


Edgar Sealey seems to have been a totally separate firm as advertising for them from the Sixties talks of the firm having been in business for over a hundred years.


I believe something was found recently that also suggested Bernard Sealey had been trading for a long time too.

Perhaps a couple of brothers went their separate ways generations before, just as two Aspindale brothers are rumoured to have done?

This thread was posted 4 months before I joined the forum ... so please forgive my tardiness in responding (though the following information has been included in other posts).

I can confirm, thanks to information received in email exchanges with Bernard Sealey's great grand-daughter, that Bernard Sealey was the cousin of Edgar Sealey ... and that 'Precision Rods' was the registered trade mark of Bernard Sealey & Co. from when the company was formed just after WW2.

There were, in fact, two R. Sealeys ... both of them Robert ... the first who designed the rods initially being Bernard's son ... and the second, who also designed rods in later years (from the late 1950s), being Bernard's grandson. The younger Robert took over the company in the early 1960s after the death of his father.

In the 1970's the 'Precision Rods' name was dropped, and rods produced under the name of Bernard Sealey & Co., until the company was sold in 1982 and the family moved to The Isle of Man.

Nicely summed up Mal. That explains why the all-cane rods are Precision and the fibreglass ones Bernard Sealey....even though Bernard was probably retired by then......

I had presumed, for no good reason whatsoever...that it was the other way around :-(

Nobby wrote:That explains why the all-cane rods are Precision and the fibreglass ones Bernard Sealey

Just a note to say that there was obviously a short period when the cane and glass eras overlapped.

Of the 55 rods I now own by this factory, the following are the numbers of each type produced by Precision Rods (PR) and Bernard Sealey & Co. (BS) :-

'Match' type (Spanish Reed/whole cane/split cane spliced) :-
PR = 14 ... BS = 0
Bottom & Spinning Rods :-
Cane ... PR = 13 ... BS = 2
Glass ... PR = 1 ... BS = 15
Fly Rods :-
Cane ... PR = 6 ... BS = 1
Glass ... PR = 0 ... BS = 3

55??? Good grief.

When do the builders start on the extension then, Mal?