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The School Pool is a gravel pit of approx. twenty acres or so and is part of the Faversham Angling Club's complex of lakes in the Faversham area. It was dug out of a field at Davington - a hamlet on the edge of Faversham town in the 1950s and some of the older members still remember the gravel workings and how the excavations were carried out.

Looking across towards The School Bank, School Pool, 1972

When the club took over the pit there were no fish in it and members scrounged whatever they could get from any pond, stream, or river they happened to be fishing and over a number of years fish of all kinds were 'trickled' in, in dribs and drabs.

Across the road from the School Pool in those days were a series of interconnected ponds which were much older than School Pool and had held fish for many years previously. Some of these were introduced into the Pool and because the stocking densities were so low and (apparently) there was a great amount of natural food these fish grew very large. In the 1960s there were some very large Bream and anglers came from all over the country to fish for them. Sadly these have now died out and School Pool is noted only for its Carp.

One of the old 'warriors' - 25 lbs. 8 ozs.

The ponds across the road held large fish of all species, but when the local council decided to fill it in and create a rubbish dump a full-scale rescue operation was mounted to transfer the stock into The School Pool. In addition to the expected Bream and Tench, some large Perch and Rudd turned up in the nets, but what astonished the netting party more than anything were several huge Carp which were discovered, floundering around in the mud. All were over twenty pounds and the biggest was nearer thirty (which in those days - 1966, was a very big Carp indeed!)

All were put in the School Pool, presumably to be lost forever in its twenty acres. Until The London Specimen Group arrived towards the late 1960s.......

22 lbs. 12 ozs., School Pool, 1980

The London Specimen Group (and others)

Dave Hayes, Pete Cranstoun, and others were the first anglers to catch the Carp of the School Pool; their methods must have been very rudimentary - freelined boiled potatoes. cast as far out as they could throw. Faversham members witnessed these captures of course, not believing such massive fish could be fished for and landed, and thus encouraged they had a go themselves. Most gave up after a couple of attempts but two members - Pete Reynolds and Dennis (Den) Naylor persisted and eventually were more successful, paving the way for others to follow.

Pete and Den became legends within the club, achieving what the other members could only dream about - catching what to them were uncatchable fish. When my good friend Peter Hanley and I met up with them at nearby Bysing Wood in the winter of 1971, little did we know they were to inspire us in achieving what no other anglers before us had yet done........