The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

"... it's a mystery... to me". So I'm trying "a shot in the dark, the big question mark" … can anyone help identify this rod please?

The only marking is engraved/stamped on the butt and states "Made in England", Butt and middle sections are each approx. 4ft 9in so assuming the tip section was the same it means the rod would have been 14ft. Butt is cane (or Spanish reed?) middle section similar with a splice, tip section again similar with a splice down to a wood tip which looks pale where broken. All stained a medium green with primrose yellow whippings. The 'ferrules' are just thin metal reinforcing bands and the male actually pushes into female cane rather than metal.

It is remarkably straight for a rod of its type, and also surprisingly light in the hand. Don't know where I could use it as most of my waters hold too many carp! Can anyone help with a name/maker?

The timber tip suggests the inter-war years, or possibly post WWII austerity times; the rust on the reel fittings also indicate hard times, for aluminium was cheap enough after the war, and brass before it.
The length and design, however, suggest a Fenland matchman, though cane-to-cane joints were usually either just silk-whipped (nothing else being strong and inelastic enough) or had a SMALL reinforcing band (W.A. Allcock's "Princess", for example). The metalled male joints and long metal reinforcements on the females suggest a "Belt and braces" approach by a maker whose customers were slightly adrift of the latest designs, or a shed-job by one such angler for his own use, hard-up but determined. I doubt if it was made by a big-name firm, but you never know; it could be a pioneering design from the first quarter of the last century.
And yet... the cork handle is positively aristocratic compare to the joints... mystery upon mystery.

I wonder what the pale timber of the tip is? If you give the broken surface a little scrape, and the fresh wood is almost lemon-yellow, it's probably lancewood, which is good stuff and means the maker put his limited resources into the bit of the rod where it mattered most.
If its a buffy brown, it may well be hazel, suggesting desperation (and that the rather natty butt sections had been "rescued"), if it's white, probably ash, but I can't really see anybody bothering to work ash down to such a fine tip. Another candidate would be hickory, but I have no idea what that looked like.

It certainly has a tale to tell; bung a tip ring on, snatch some tiddlers and see what it asks you to do with/to/for it.

Cheap tacklefor "Everyman" to an avanced design - the name "Trent Otter" -J.W.Martin- floats up, but I've only ever seen one of his rods, and didn't take notes (It was a bit of a wreck). Might be a lead, though.

" Made In England " stamped / engraved on the butt cap suggests (possibly) Milwards.

Vole, Sir The wood has the colour, texture and appearance of cane... so either a bit of turned cane(?) or perhaps hazel. The tip would have certainly been very thin at full length as even in its much-shortened condition it is still perfectly fine to use. I will indeed be adding a tip ring and cleaning up the rings to give it a try It seems to me that a home made rod would not have had "Made in England" stamped on it unless the fittings had been salvaged from a different rod, but as the fittings all match so well to this one would that be likely? It is indeed a mystery!

Ljm163 when time allows I'll check a Millwards rod to see if the letters are of a similar font style

Many thanks to you both for your helpful suggestions