Taking is name from Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, a group of Evesham anglers met on the 15th May 1897 at the Trumpet Inn at Merstow Green in the small market town of Evesham to discuss setting up an angling club originally called The Jubilee Society to fish the Warwickshire Avon that runs its course through the Vale of Evesham. That year saw an impressive 60 anglers join the club.
The Early years
Back in the day the club just fished the River Avon on the town waters and the Common Road stretch in Evesham. Then 1929 saw the arrival of Ernie Huxley who moved to the village of Hampton just outside Evesham to operate a smallholding next to the river which also had a ferry across the river, which at the time was the only way of getting into Evesham from Hampton. Being a keen angler Ernie spent as much time as he could fishing and was soon approached by an increasing number of anglers wanting to fish his Hampton ferry waters and no doubt some of the early Evesham Jubilee members would also fish on the Hampton ferry stretch. These anglers soon began organizing regular matches and Evesham’s fishing heritage was born.
Post WW11
With now a thriving angling community in 1949 Evesham Jubilee were one of the founding members along with other local angling clubs to see the formation of Evesham and District Angling Association and then also Worcester & District United Anglers Association. Evesham Jubilee entered teams to fish against other association clubs on Summer and winter leagues on the river Avon. During this golden period the club was also running its own matches and a large collection of Club Cups and Trophies was beginning to grow with matches now also being fished further away on local canals and also the river Severn. A thriving junior section was also now common place as fathers began to take their sons fishing.
Into the 60’s and 70’s
By this time the club was thriving, holding regular club matches on local rivers and canals in the area and entering teams into local Summer and Winter leagues. The club once reached the final of the annual Sports Argus Angling competition, fished in 1959 on the Hampton Ferry waters. The Sports Argus was for many years the largest selling Sports newspaper in the UK printed on distinctive pink paper and published in Birmingham between 1897 to 2006.
This period had to two dominant members who held various positions and ran the club. John Davis who originally joined as a junior in 1947 and Phil Johns joining in 1962 who between them had over 100 years combined association with the club and steered the club though these golden years.
John Davis (AKA Mr Eversham) also served on the organising committee of the Evesham Angling Festival and helped the festival rise to be the pinnacle of UK river match fishing as the festival flourished into one of the biggest angling festivals in the Country, attracting the cream of the top river anglers in the Country. John was famed as the man on the microphone during these festival matches giving a running commentary as the matches progressed and often welcomed visiting spectators to the Evesham angling festival, often pronouncing Evesham as Eversham. Hence the nickname.
Into the 80’s and 90’s
The club was now fishing matches on Sundays on the river Avon as before but now travelling to other venues such as the Worcester canal, The River Severn around Worcester and also the Wye in Hereford. Locally a match was always held on the river Arrow and also an annual team match against Bidford AC began. There was plenty of Silverware to fish for. Aggregate Cups for the full seasons matches, Summer/winter leagues and individual one off matches such as the annual fur and feather match at Christmas where all competitors won a prize better than the entrance fee.
The ‘Annual’
Once a year the big match of the year would be the ‘Annual’ this was the annual day out to a match venue a little further away and members would all travel together on a coach, fish the match and then have an evening meal together with presentation of the days prizes before boarding the coach for the return journey home. Some years this was to fish the Trent at Burton Joyce and other far away venue’s. It was always a great day out with plenty of banter on the coach. You could even have a bet on yourself to win the match. Sadly as the years passed and with anglers generally taking more and more tackle to matches, there wasn’t room for it all on the coach and this special day out faded out.
1997 Centenary Year 100 years old
1997 saw the clubs 100 birthday so a special match was added to the fixture list to fish for the Centenary Trophy, kindly donated to the club from W L Brown Ironmongers in Pershore. This trophy was then fished for every year after.
Into the new Millennium – the 2000’s
Around this time saw a new direction for the club. It began to rent a fishing pool from a local farmer, which later was developed into 3 fishing pools which became known as the Jubilee fishery and membership grew from the 30 odd anglers regularly fishing matches to over hundred pleasure anglers as they were now able to fish at the fishery. Having the fishery saw matches on the rivers begin to decline and eventually most matches were at the Jubilee fishery.
Over £10,000 raised for charity, so far!
During this time the club lost some members due to ill health and a long standing relationship began with St Richards Hospice in Worcester where the club held several charity fishing matches and BBQ’s over the years to raise funds for this charity and several matches were also held for the Air Ambulance. One year over 50 anglers fished one of these matches and to date over £10,000 has been raised for the charity.
Into the 2020’s the fishery had become unviable for the club to run and the club returned to be a roving club. Mainly fishing matches in the Worcestershire area. However the club have recently found a new home water, details coming soon
2025 The New Jubilee Pools
Opened in June 2025 The Jubilee pools at Libbery became the clubs new home Waters, Two pools, Jims (12 pegs) and Island pools (22pegs)
Evesham Jubilee Angling Society, est.1897 