Page 19 - Nyth Volume 3

price, but I think in the early 1960’s it was something like 5/ – to 7/6d a pound (equivalent to about £8 – £12 / pound today; it was a real luxury); and that rose with in ation. at certainly put a premium on landing that 20lb sh, and went a long way to paying the keeper’s wages in a good season. I remember that in 1958, there was some debate about what a keeper should be paid. I was all ears
– and picked up that it was linked to the “minimum agricultural wage” – which at the time was £7 / week (“linked to”, not necessarily set just at that level).
With the decline in Salmon stocks, and changed economic circumstances, it is now much less usual for a beat to be held in close single ownership with no letting; or to have a full time keeper / ghillie just to tend the beat and the guests – and being paid to sh himself whenever there are no guests – nice work if you could get it! Lack of a keeper means a big reduction in the capacity to look after boats – which puts some of the water out of reach, and so forth.
But all good things come to an end; Stephen died in February 1974; the world was in the middle of the rst big oil crisis, with ballooning prices and the UK was in the grip of the Gormley / Daley miners strike; shortages of coal were causing regular scheduled power cuts and blackouts, and a three day working week had been declared. Stock markets in the UK were down to not much more than a third of previous levels, some banks in the City were closing, and there was general gloom. Out of this had to be paid Death Duties – like IHT – at well over 50%, at least some of which were assessed on an earlier, much higher value of assets (so that e ective marginal rates approached or in some cases
exceeded 100%). My mother had to be provided for, and I have two half brothers. ere was absolutely no way that it was possible to hold on to Tyrcelin, much as I would have loved to do so.
I was sad to leave Tyrcelin – although the immediate feeling was mitigated by the amazing last week it gave me in September 1974. But change happens and life goes on; I can now feel that what I have, I have earned not just inherited, and the memories are reasonably unsullied by subsequent experience.
I did go to the Nyth a few times in the 1980’s, thanks to Mark and his siblings’ generosity, and a couple of times in (I think) 2005 and 2006, thanks to Philip Parkinson; I much enjoyed the visits. I expressed great admiration to Philip, for his having managed to put the two places together: something I would have loved to have done, had I been able.
Before 1957; SCD andJFR
Stephen Dobson (SCD) and John Robinson (JFR) were direct rst cousins: Stephen’s mother Ruth, and John’s father, Sir Foster, were brother and sister, children of Edward and Katherine, with further brothers and sisters in Sir Stanley, Harold, Frances and Katherine (“Aunt K”).
During the rst World War, when Stephen’s and John’s respective parents were for much of the time abroad with the army, SCD and JFR lived at least part of the time at the Towers, Edward and Katherine’s house outside Bristol, and in some respects came to know each other as brothers as much as cousins. I think SCD’s brother Christo (who went to live in Canada), and Harold sons