BIBLIOGRAPHY

This section, created by Chris McCully, offers members a selection of sources, books and publications, with web links where available, for interesting information relating to our river. If other members wish to add to this section, please contact the Secretary.

The club

Cameron, J.R. (1983) The Ryedale Anglers’ Club and its Keepers. Petergate, York: Privately printed.

[Essential reading about the early history of the club. Highly interesting maps and images, with a great section on Arthur Storey and his view of the trout and grayling fishing on the river in the second third of the 20th century.]

The John Storey

·       Overfield, T. Donald (1980) Fifty Favourite Dry Flies. Tonbridge: Ernest Benn.

[Notes on the history and tying of the John Storey will be found under pattern 11, pp.38-9.]

·       YouTube segment with Davie McPhail tying a John Storey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nan39jKLwnE

The segment includes a few useful paragraphs about the history of the fly and the Storey family.

·       The fly pattern has been used successfully all over the world – see e.g.  https://smallstreamreflections.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-john-storey-fly-that-earned-place.html (American piece about the John Storey’s success when used for brook trout). Closer to home, it underlay the development of the Sweet William, a fly favoured by some on the River Nidd (https://www.fishandfly.com/the-sweet-william-fly-and-norman-greenwood/).

The river, the fishing, the town and region

Aston, John (2007) A Dream of Jewelled Fishes. London: The Aurum Press.

[While not specifically about the Rye, the river and Ryedale – and North Yorkshire’s land- and waterscapes in general – haunt this beautifully-written text, even though the words range over Scotland, Ireland, and different species of coarse fish. The chapter titled ‘The shadowed light’, about fishing for grayling on the Seph, one of the upper Rye’s main tributaries, is magnificent.]

Aston, John (2012) The Glorious Uncertainty. Ellesmere, Shropshire: The Medlar Press.

[A work that again ranges widely over a lifetime of angling experiences, but one of the most telling chapters recounts a walk up to the source of the Rye on Snilesworth moor, where the author thinks aloud ‘about [a] river which had become almost a way of life to me’ (p.196). Another wonderfully-written book.]

Bradley, Tom (1988) The Rye and the Riccall. [First edition c.1890.] Leeds: Old Hall Press.

[This little book was part of a series on the major Yorkshire rivers published by the respected angler and writer Tom Bradley through the Yorkshire Post. It’s not specifically a fishing title but it does contain some snippets of information about angling on the river(s).]

English Heritage do a useful guidebook to Helmsley Castle (a fortification originally established by Walter Espec in 1120) written by Jonathan Clark. This is obtainable through shops and tourist centres in and around Helmsley. A similar guidebook is available on Rievaulx Abbey and its history.

Jackson, John (1854) The Practical Fly-Fisher; more particularly for Grayling or Umber. London: E. Farlow.

[Not a work specifically about the Rye, but full of interest nevertheless, not least because of Jackson’s descriptions of contemporary fly patterns. Some of these, such as the Whirling Dun, the Alder, the Dun Cut and the Willow Fly, he specifically recommended for use of the Rye at different times of the angling year – the Alder, for instance, being favoured during the greendrake season. The work also gives a brief synopsis of the fishing on the Rye at Rievaulx, writing that the scenery there is ‘almost beyond description’. Jackson noted, too, the formation of Ryedale Anglers’ Club and he was enthusiastic about the quality of the grayling found in the Rye at and around Duncombe Park: ‘the Grayling,’ he wrote, ‘are the largest I have ever caught, and may be frequently taken upwards of a pound in weight’ (p.44). He rated the angling on the Rye very highly in comparative as well as absolute terms: ‘I have found no river yield so much sport for the whole season as the Rye’ (p.47).

The two hard text editions of Jackson (1854, and a second edition in 1862) fetch considerable prices now, but the first edition may be read for free on-line (it’s a digitised copy now in the possession of the University of California Libraries): https://archive.org/details/practiflyfish00jackrich/page/44/mode/2up]

McDonnell, J. (ed., 1963) A History of Helmsley, Rievaulx and District. York: The Stonegate Press.

Mead, Harry (1994) Inside the North York Moors. Otley: Smith Settle.

[Not specifically about Ryedale but has some interesting sections on Yorkshire thatch (as at Harome – pp.179-182) on Duncombe Park (pp.182-86) and on the little-known Rievaulx canals (pp.59-61).]

Read, Herbert (2011) Between the Riccall and the Rye. [Anthologised excerpts from various of Read’s writings.] Mitcham, Surrey: The Orage Press.

[Read was an influential 20th-century art historian, critic and poet. This is an often charming set of recollections of growing up in the vale in the earlier 20th century.]

Rushton, John (2003) The History of Ryedale. Pickering, Yorkshire: The Blackthorn Press.

[These notes by Chris McCully, with thanks also to John Roberts; updated March 2025.]