Mc Kenzie Thorpe ( Again )

[marsh man]

Even though Kenzie was a pain in the arsx with his local land owners and anyone who rented shooting within his striking distance , I have always thought of him being a bit of a legend in the wild fowling world and every so often another little bit of past history comes to light .

Only the other day I was looking on the face book site even though I wasn't a member at the paintings that kenzie painted mainly in the mid 60s , while looking I saw a letter that Simon Trinder ( artist ) put on the site from Holbeach W A where it stated that the club had expelled Kenzie for continually breaking the rules and they had advised the other Wash clubs and W A G B I .

Then there was another letter by the same person where Spalding W A were having Kenzie to do a talk and film show at one of there meetings and going by previous meetings when Kenzie had been booked the room was always well attended , I bet it was .

I know it was a long time ago but I wonder if any P W members ever went to one of these meetings , not only  Spalding W A but anywhere where Kenzie done a talk and a exhibition ? 

[dipper]

Yes went to one of his talks at Tatton park Stockport ..Late 60 early 70.

[marsh man]

24 minutes ago, dipper said:

Yes went to one of his talks at Tatton park Stockport ..Late 60 early 70.

For an ole Fenlander he went far and wide dipper , I only ever saw the man once on the W A G B I stand at one of the C L A Game Fairs , his paintings were up for sale on his stand , not a huge amount of money but for me it was way above my means , sadly .

[London Best]

As a member of Erewash and Trent Vally W.C. and being in regular contact with ‘Kenzie I organised for him to come to Derbyshire to give one of his entertaining talks. For many, the highlight was his finale, where he pulled from a bag a rope a few yards long which was full of goose rings.

[marsh man]

10 minutes ago, London Best said:

As a member of Erewash and Trent Vally W.C. and being in regular contact with ‘Kenzie I organised for him to come to Derbyshire to give one of his entertaining talks. For many, the highlight was his finale, where he pulled from a bag a rope a few yards long which was full of goose rings.

Wow , the ole boy certainly got about , he did have a length of rope when I saw him, but this was used for a number of things including pulling someone out of the mud if they happened to get stuck and not loaded with goose rings .

I also noticed on the face book page a couple of people had letters with his bill head at the top stating himself as a goose guide , his address in Sutton Bridge and a telephone number that only contained three numbers , now that is going back a bit .

[London Best]

11 hours ago, marsh man said:

Wow , the ole boy certainly got about , he did have a length of rope when I saw him, but this was used for a number of things including pulling someone out of the mud if they happened to get stuck and not loaded with goose rings .

I also noticed on the face book page a couple of people had letters with his bill head at the top stating himself as a goose guide , his address in Sutton Bridge and a telephone number that only contained three numbers , now that is going back a bit .

Yes, I still have a couple of letters of his, dating from 1965/6. 
I was only just leaving school then, and spent many happy hours with him on his houseboat. It was before I was old enough to drive, and I used to get my Dad to drive me from Derbyshire to Shep White’s (in his pre-war Rover) drop me off and pick me up a week later.

[Pushandpull]

LB - was the other houseboat, the Pintail, still there then ?  I didn't know that end of the Wash back then as I only shot between the Nene and Lynn River with a 7/6 (I think) day ticket after a long motorbike ride. Pintail was towed round from Lynn because that was where the geese were then. In more recent years I have heard some great tales from the lads who stayed in her, and used to go in support when Kenzie was boxing.

[London Best]

2 minutes ago, Pushandpull said:

LB - was the other houseboat, the Pintail, still there then ?  I didn't know that end of the Wash back then as I only shot between the Nene and Lynn River with a 7/6 (I think) day ticket after a long motorbike ride. Pintail was towed round from Lynn because that was where the geese were then. In more recent years I have heard some great tales from the lads who stayed in her, and used to go in support when Kenzie was boxing.

I recollect hearing about Pintail, but I can’t remember seeing her. 
Kenzie’s boxing days were over well before I knew him. I reckon he was 57 when I first met him.

[Pushandpull]

I think Pintail was put there in the 50s (was petrol still rationed ?) and few folk had cars. I have seen a couple of tiny b/w photos of her delivery trip. This was also the time of the famous or notorious green lorry which ran from North Lynn to Shep White's bearing hopeful fowlers. During rationing, one of the Pintail lads drove his mates about in a Ford V8. His day job was driving petrol tankers. Allegedly.

Anyone reading this with a modern eye, be aware that this was before the clubs had got off the ground. Even flight-netting was still legal and still going on until the 1954 Act.  In fact increased shooting pressure plus people going inland after game was a big factor in forming the Wash clubs.

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, use to see him at game fairs , his paintings were good, but not the first time a shooting/fishing  celeb broke the rules, 

[Diabolo]

Geoff Worral (of Tideline Books) wrote this in his preface to the Tideline edition of Kenzie, The Wild Goose Man. When he passed away his signed first edition of the book mentioned in the preface became available, and I obtained it a few years ago. Also with the book was a letter from Kenzie to Worral about some work he was to do for him. Interestingly he has crossed out his original street name on the letterhead and handwritten the new name of the street following a visit to him by the chap now known as King Chares the Third!

 

Steve

[Pushandpull]

I saw him at a couple of game fairs, and he reminded me of a big old bear at the zoo playing to the public and no doubt enjoying it.

He could however be very forthright. One cold and foggy night in I think November 1970 Fenland WA held an open evening in Wisbech where the chief item was John Anderton promoting WAGBI and its work. At the end there was a question and answer session and a chap asked whether the rumours from down south about brent feeding inland were true. JA said that this was indeed happening but Kenzie was on his feet almost interrupting : "The man what said that - he's a liar !" was his opening salvo, and he really went off on one. Just would not be convinced.

I think it was the next season I was driving another old-timer, Rodney Buxton, down to the Camp. He called to me to stop and back up then pointed to a field on his left : "They're ******* brent !" Like Kenzie, he could not believe brent would ever venture behind the sea wall.

[London Best]

In the early 1990’s I supplied some photographs of Kenzie to Gedney Drove End Wildfowlers for a display board for shows. About fifteen years later I wanted a copy of ‘The Wild Goose Man’ to give to a friend in Africa and bought a secondhand copy of the Tideline edition. Imagine my surprise when I found it contained my photographs, credited to the secretary of G.D.E.W. 
I wasn’t too pleased at the time, but Geoff Worrall had passed away.

[marsh man]

Some very interesting replies considering we are talking around 60 odd years ago and THANKS to those above for taking the time to tell us before they are locked away in the history books .

I did once read that Colin Willock got Kenzie to go up to Norwich a few times to take part in a Survival program that was being produced by Anglia Television about the man himself . Do any of you know if the program was ever finished ? and if so was it ever televised ? ,

[Ferretlurcher1970]

Think I found it on you tube. He is calling birds and talking about prince Phillip. By memory 

[marsh man]

18 minutes ago, Ferretlurcher1970 said:

Think I found it on you tube. He is calling birds and talking about prince Phillip. By memory 

You might well be right , but the only two I have seen are from E A F A ( East Anglian Film Archive ) one of them are on youtube that was taken in the early seventies which would be a few years before he passed away , the other one was a short film with no sound that was taken in the 60s when he went to flight on his scooter and he had two Pinks hanging up near his back door .

[harrycatcat1]

You wouldn't get away with this nowadays. 

 

[ditchman]

never met him.... .before .  i was working on kings lynn docks ... he used to turn up and chat to the dockers who were all fowlers....i used to shoot with them regular down wolverton...heard several funny stories about thorpe out on wolverton flats

Edited October 26, 2022 by ditchman

[marsh man]

3 hours ago, harrycatcat1 said:

You wouldn't get away with this nowadays. 

 

No you certainly wouldn't Harry , mind you it would have took a brave person at the time to tell him to sleeve his gun and to keep the shot fowl in a shoulder bag 

This would had been perfectly normal in a village that had several wild fowlers , we had one who would walk around with a double eight bore under his arm and his thigh boots would always be folded down , the only difference with the chap who I knew was I never saw him carrying a duck let alone a couple of geese , I used to buy a box of ten cartridges off him for five shillings and he always reminded me of Went worth day .

Another thing I doubt we will ever see again was when we had the 1953 East coast floods we were stranded with five foot of water in our house and a rowing boat rowed over our fence to take us all to higher ground, there was 6 of us and my mum was expecting my younger sister so the little boat was well loaded ,what was a strange sight at the time was on the other side of the road was a double gun punt also helping out , minus the punt gun on the deck of course  

[harrycatcat1]

22 minutes ago, marsh man said:

No you certainly wouldn't Harry , mind you it would have took a brave person at the time to tell him to sleeve his gun and to keep the shot fowl in a shoulder bag 

This would had been perfectly normal in a village that had several wild fowlers , we had one who would walk around with a double eight bore under his arm and his thigh boots would always be folded down , the only difference with the chap who I knew was I never saw him carrying a duck let alone a couple of geese , I used to buy a box of ten cartridges off him for five shillings and he always reminded me of Went worth day .

Another thing I doubt we will ever see again was when we had the 1953 East coast floods we were stranded with five foot of water in our house and a rowing boat rowed over our fence to take us all to higher ground, there was 6 of us and my mum was expecting my younger sister so the little boat was well loaded ,what was a strange sight at the time was on the other side of the road was a double gun punt also helping out , minus the punt gun on the deck of course  

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