Kenzie - The wild goose man of Lincolnshire

[mgsontour]

I've just been given the above book to read, written by Colin Willock 1962, just wondering if anyone else has come across it as it feels a good read even after only a few pages

Edited February 22, 2022 by mgsontour
Typo

[ashtons99]

It’s very good, I have a really old copy and have read it a few times. He was quite a character, well known  round the downham market area. 

[Weihrauch17]

Brilliant book, I have read it three times.  I had a copy with a signed drawing of a Goose by Kenzie in it and stupidly sold it and later bought another copy.

[Blackpowder]

I 've had my copy for years most like read it  every other year.

 

Blackpowder

[Vince Green]

I read it years ago

another good book from the 60s was Pigeon Shooting by Archie Coates

Edited February 22, 2022 by Vince Green

[DUNKS]

Excellent book I have it too.

[mgsontour]

Wow, I'm not an avid reader but the 1st few pages have truly got my attention and glad others think the same

[marsh man]

I dare say there are very few , if any oldish wild fowlers who haven't read the boat and like me read it more than once , there is also two old videos on E A F A about the man himself , one in the 60s and a later one just before he passed away at a fairly young age , I can remember seeing him on the W A G B I stand at the C L A Game Fair , he had a three quarter wax coat coat with big White writing on the back , Kenzie The Wild Goose Man , he had some of his paintings for sale at about £15 , a lot of money at the time but they would cost a fair ole bit now . 

[Ferretlurcher1970]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/B1syY9Vz5tyVEsu29

https://photos.app.goo.gl/B1syY9Vz5tyVEsu29

[London Best]

It’s a book I cannot put down from whichever page I open it.

I first read it in 1963, when I was just 14. I decided then that I just had to get to know the man. By Summer 1965 I was pigeon shooting with Kenzie and ‘fowling with him from that winter. Many a happy hour was spent on his houseboat. All this was before his new-found fame from the book went to his head a little and he painted his name across the back of his Solway Zipper. 
He sadly passed away in 1976 aged 68.

I still have my own signed copy of the book complete with one of Kenzie’s sketches on the fly sheet.  My book became a little tatty through lending it out so I had to source another copy about 20 years ago, just to loan to people. I gave that one to a PH in Africa. Then another PH friend wanted one so I had to buy a third one. There is a second edition with additional photos, some of which are mine, although mistakenly not credited to me.

I would have loved to meet the author, Colin Willock, but never did.

[Old Boggy]

I’ve also got a copy and have read it several times.

My duck shooting pal knew him quite well and has one of his paintings in his cottage.

OB

[marsh man]

10 hours ago, London Best said:

It’s a book I cannot put down from whichever page I open it.

I first read it in 1963, when I was just 14. I decided then that I just had to get to know the man. By Summer 1965 I was pigeon shooting with Kenzie and ‘fowling with him from that winter. Many a happy hour was spent on his houseboat. All this was before his new-found fame from the book went to his head a little and he painted his name across the back of his Solway Zipper. 
He sadly passed away in 1976 aged 68.

I still have my own signed copy of the book complete with one of Kenzie’s sketches on the fly sheet.  My book became a little tatty through lending it out so I had to source another copy about 20 years ago, just to loan to people. I gave that one to a PH in Africa. Then another PH friend wanted one so I had to buy a third one. There is a second edition with additional photos, some of which are mine, although mistakenly not credited to me.

I would have loved to meet the author, Colin Willock, but never did.

One of my many regrets in life was when I retired nearly 15 years ago I went to the sporting auction at Kings Lynn to treat myself with the money the estate kindly collected for me when I retired , on this night they had the usual assortment of shooting related stuff and of course the guns .

On one of the tables was an ole cardboard box with about a dozen silhouette goose decoys in it plus a letter , these were used by Kenzie and with them was a signed letter by Sid Write to confirm these were genuine as he had been out several times with Kenzie when he put them to good use , I can well remember looking at them and was seriously thinking about buying them , they were fairly crude and roughly painted to look like Pinks , at the base of the neck they had a nut and bolt so you could put the necks in a feeding position or standing upright.

On another table there was a signed copy of his book with a sketch of a skein of geese , and on another was a good pair of Pentax binoculars , I thought long and hard and decided to go for the bins , I had two copies of his book , both the old version and the new one and I wasn't sure about the decoys.

Anyhow the auction started and first to come up was the book , this went for somewhere in the £40s plus fees , then my bins came up and I ended up paying about £150 , next in line was the decoys , the auctioneer read the letter out from Sid Write to say they were genuine and they ended up selling for just over £100 which wasn't a lot of money for some wildfowling history .

Maybe one of the members on here bought them and would be kind enough to show us a photo ? , I get a lot of use out of my binoculars and very pleased with them but even to this day I still wander if I made the right decision 

[London Best]

I remember the silhouette goose decoys, and I remember Sid Wright too. 
Somewhere in the depths of a shed I am sure I still have a bag of Wigeon silhouettes which I have not used for nearly thirty years. And I still have some of Kenzie’s letters ‘somewhere’.

[harrycatcat1]

3 hours ago, London Best said:

I remember the silhouette goose decoys, and I remember Sid Wright too. 
Somewhere in the depths of a shed I am sure I still have a bag of Wigeon silhouettes which I have not used for nearly thirty years. And I still have some of Kenzie’s letters ‘somewhere’.

You should write a book about your exploits with Kenzie 👍

[Smokersmith]

I'm too young to have met him personally, but I've shot pinks using some of Kenzies silhouette decoys borrowed from another old family friend (guessing these were the ones referred to).

My aunt once made a paper aeroplane out of one of his paintings and threw it off his houseboat whilst the men were talking (doh!)

Two signed copies of the book ... the one below I gifted to a very good friend who introduced to fowling (and he introduced me to fly fishing).

No doubt a talented guy in many respects.

[mgsontour]

21 hours ago, Ferretlurcher1970 said:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/B1syY9Vz5tyVEsu29

https://photos.app.goo.gl/B1syY9Vz5tyVEsu29

Thanks for that

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, Smokersmith said:

I'm too young to have met him personally, but I've shot pinks using some of Kenzies silhouette decoys borrowed from another old family friend (guessing these were the ones referred to).

My aunt once made a paper aeroplane out of one of his paintings and threw it off his houseboat whilst the men were talking (doh!)

Two signed copies of the book ... the one below I gifted to a very good friend who introduced to fowling (and he introduced me to fly fishing).

No doubt a talented guy in many respects.

We tend to look at Kenzies exploits with a tinted glass and can often see no wrong , without a shadow of doubt he was a first class wildfowler and very few could match him when it came to shooting geese.

But what was he thought of by local gunners at the time he was making a living out of taking fowlers for a flight and selling the bag ?

In the 70s me and my younger brother took fishing parties sea fishing out from Yarmouth , one Sunday we had a party from Lincolnshire and I found a lot of people who go shooting also go fishing , so while yarning to them I asked what the shooting was like around the Wash area , I soon gathered that a lot of the guys who were fishing on board were also into fowling , then the conversation got round to Kenzie Thorpe , this was like putting a Red flag in front of a Bull , not one of them had a good word to say about the man and locally he was more trouble than what he was worth .

I could well believe that as no ground was sacred to Kenzie and if geese were dropping in on a certain field then he wouldn't give it a second thought to have a go , you can read in the book where he would walk up and down someone's land for Hares and that was where he met Mr Bromley who was during the same thing , all very well but how would you feel if you paid good money to rent the shooting rights ? , like me , not very happy and that was the case when he first came into contact with Peter Scott , they had the right to be on the marsh and he didn't , would he had been able to do the same today ? , I very much doubt it .

[ditchman]

8 hours ago, marsh man said:

One of my many regrets in life was when I retired nearly 15 years ago I went to the sporting auction at Kings Lynn to treat myself with the money the estate kindly collected for me when I retired , on this night they had the usual assortment of shooting related stuff and of course the guns .

On one of the tables was an ole cardboard box with about a dozen silhouette goose decoys in it plus a letter , these were used by Kenzie and with them was a signed letter by Sid Write to confirm these were genuine as he had been out several times with Kenzie when he put them to good use , I can well remember looking at them and was seriously thinking about buying them , they were fairly crude and roughly painted to look like Pinks , at the base of the neck they had a nut and bolt so you could put the necks in a feeding position or standing upright.

On another table there was a signed copy of his book with a sketch of a skein of geese , and on another was a good pair of Pentax binoculars , I thought long and hard and decided to go for the bins , I had two copies of his book , both the old version and the new one and I wasn't sure about the decoys.

Anyhow the auction started and first to come up was the book , this went for somewhere in the £40s plus fees , then my bins came up and I ended up paying about £150 , next in line was the decoys , the auctioneer read the letter out from Sid Write to say they were genuine and they ended up selling for just over £100 which wasn't a lot of money for some wildfowling history .

Maybe one of the members on here bought them and would be kind enough to show us a photo ? , I get a lot of use out of my binoculars and very pleased with them but even to this day I still wander if I made the right decision 

was that the sale room on the way to the Gaywood clock on the left..?........Kings lynn wildfowlers used to have one there now and again

[marsh man]

35 minutes ago, ditchman said:

was that the sale room on the way to the Gaywood clock on the left..?........Kings lynn wildfowlers used to have one there now and again

Yes that's the one , nearly next door to the Wildfowler Public House at Gaywood , it was run by Collings estate agents and they had two a year , they stopped a few years ago and is now done at your ole friends at Acle sale ground ( Horners ) .

[London Best]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

We tend to look at Kenzies exploits with a tinted glass and can often see no wrong , without a shadow of doubt he was a first class wildfowler and very few could match him when it came to shooting geese.

But what was he thought of by local gunners at the time he was making a living out of taking fowlers for a flight and selling the bag ?

In the 70s me and my younger brother took fishing parties sea fishing out from Yarmouth , one Sunday we had a party from Lincolnshire and I found a lot of people who go shooting also go fishing , so while yarning to them I asked what the shooting was like around the Wash area , I soon gathered that a lot of the guys who were fishing on board were also into fowling , then the conversation got round to Kenzie Thorpe , this was like putting a Red flag in front of a Bull , not one of them had a good word to say about the man and locally he was more trouble than what he was worth .

I could well believe that as no ground was sacred to Kenzie and if geese were dropping in on a certain field then he wouldn't give it a second thought to have a go , you can read in the book where he would walk up and down someone's land for Hares and that was where he met Mr Bromley who was during the same thing , all very well but how would you feel if you paid good money to rent the shooting rights ? , like me , not very happy and that was the case when he first came into contact with Peter Scott , they had the right to be on the marsh and he didn't , would he had been able to do the same today ? , I very much doubt it .

You are right there, MM. From the early ‘70’s I never spoke to a fowler that had a good word for ‘Kenzie. I think it was because the publicity had gone to his head a bit. 
And, from what I could see, he certainly never stopped poaching even if it was on a much reduced scale to his earlier exploits. Even in the 1960’s it was obviously impossible for him to operate in the same manner and with the same impunity he was doing in the 1930/40/50’s. 
Sitting in the houseboat one afternoon, I mentioned that I had never seen him call hares. “Got yor gun, bor”, and we were off. He walked me up the sea wall, across a dyke, then along a smaller dyke to the junction with another dyke in the corner of a 400 acre stubble field. “you ready”, and he began to call. Hares popped up and ran towards us like a flock of sheep. 
I count myself lucky to have known him before he started referring to himself as “the famous wildfowler”.

Edited February 23, 2022 by London Best

[ditchman]

21 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Yes that's the one , nearly next door to the Wildfowler Public House at Gaywood , it was run by Collings estate agents and they had two a year , they stopped a few years ago and is now done at your ole friends at Acle sale ground ( Horners ) .

i got badly done there many years ago.........me mates were always hard up and putting cartridges in their pockets and it was coming up to xmas....i rang the boys at the sale and asked if they had any cheap leather cartridge bags in for the sale...as luck would have it he said there was a box of 7 cartridge bags...all were slightly scuffed...so i said buy them for me if they dont go stupid.........

so he did.......£15 quid the lot..........

 

so i picked them up the next day ..had a quick look into the box ....yup fine......got them back home and thought i would wrap them up for xmas prezzies for my wildfowling mates......box was on the kitchen table

 

there i was watching TV ..having a beer .........my mrs comes in and says "are all your wildfowling mates queer "..???,,,,,,,,,,i said dont be stupid why

 

she said ............."they are ladys handbags you twerp"..............

 

i was not best pleased

[chesterse]

My wife’s grandad Rusty Lawson was one of the old wildfowlers on the wash. He new Kenzie well and were friendly rivals. The story goes if Kenzie went by Rusty’s bungalow East Bank, Sutton Bridge on his bike he would make his mocking goose calls as he went.

Rusty made his own punt and punt gun and regularly took out celebrities of the time such as James Robertson Justice and Michael Adeane and Bill Urmston onto the marsh. He made his living wildfowling and from a small holding growing strawberries and asparagus.

[mel b3]

12 minutes ago, ditchman said:

i got badly done there many years ago.........me mates were always hard up and putting cartridges in their pockets and it was coming up to xmas....i rang the boys at the sale and asked if they had any cheap leather cartridge bags in for the sale...as luck would have it he said there was a box of 7 cartridge bags...all were slightly scuffed...so i said buy them for me if they dont go stupid.........

so he did.......£15 quid the lot..........

 

so i picked them up the next day ..had a quick look into the box ....yup fine......got them back home and thought i would wrap them up for xmas prezzies for my wildfowling mates......box was on the kitchen table

 

there i was watching TV ..having a beer .........my mrs comes in and says "are all your wildfowling mates queer "..???,,,,,,,,,,i said dont be stupid why

 

she said ............."they are ladys handbags you twerp"..............

 

i was not best pleased

😄😄😄.

A lifetimes worth of ladies handbags . That would explain a lot 😁😁😁

[TIGHTCHOKE]

5 minutes ago, mel b3 said:

😄😄😄.

A lifetimes worth of ladies handbags . That would explain a lot 😁😁😁

Oh it would!   

[marsh man]

22 minutes ago, ditchman said:

i got badly done there many years ago.........me mates were always hard up and putting cartridges in their pockets and it was coming up to xmas....i rang the boys at the sale and asked if they had any cheap leather cartridge bags in for the sale...as luck would have it he said there was a box of 7 cartridge bags...all were slightly scuffed...so i said buy them for me if they dont go stupid.........

so he did.......£15 quid the lot..........

 

so i picked them up the next day ..had a quick look into the box ....yup fine......got them back home and thought i would wrap them up for xmas prezzies for my wildfowling mates......box was on the kitchen table

 

there i was watching TV ..having a beer .........my mrs comes in and says "are all your wildfowling mates queer "..???,,,,,,,,,,i said dont be stupid why

 

she said ............."they are ladys handbags you twerp"..............

 

i was not best pleased

Brilliant , I bet your ( mates ) had a right ole larf , I remember them telling me that box full of faux leather unisex cartridge bags I stuck in the auction was bought by someone local to me , well I never , what a small world 

16 minutes ago, chesterse said:

My wife’s grandad Rusty Lawson was one of the old wildfowlers on the wash. He new Kenzie well and were friendly rivals. The story goes if Kenzie went by Rusty’s bungalow East Bank, Sutton Bridge on his bike he would make his mocking goose calls as he went.

Rusty made his own punt and punt gun and regularly took out celebrities of the time such as James Robertson Justice and Michael Adeane and Bill Urmston onto the marsh. He made his living wildfowling and from a small holding growing strawberries and asparagus.

THANKS for sharing , even after all these years you keep coming across new little snippets like you have just mentioned .