How the Weymouth and
District Wildfowlers Association was born
Several
people from the Weymouth area, who had joined the Dorset Wildfowlers which has
been wildfowling in Poole harbour since 1952, became disillusioned and decided
to form the Weymouth & District Wildfowlers Association.
The
Weymouth club had good contacts within the area and got permission to shoot on
Lodmoor Marsh, on condition that they would give it up at a moment notice if
the council wanted to develop it. Around 1968 some of the wildfowlers in the
area also joined WAGBI as individual members. Some of the local Dorset
Wildfowlers members started to investigate the possibility of an arrangement
with the Ilchester estate, both by personal contact and through WAGBI.
A
meeting was arranged with the estate under the cloak of the WAGBI Southern
Joint Council. This was to be for the benefit of Weymouth members and those
Dorset club members who lived locally.
An
annual license for 75 permits was issued by the Ilchester estate to the
Weymouth and District Wildfowlers Association for the 1970-1 season.