Seized by the Crown: won back by the people!

SPECIAL FEATURE on a stupendous victory for steadfast underdogs

For centuries the townspeople of Selkirk enjoyed the right to fish for salmon from the banks of the River Ettrick as it flowed through their Scottish Borders town.

But that treasured right was snatched away by a UK Government agency no less in 1912 when the forerunners of the Crown Estates seized ownership of the rights on three fishing beats then imposed ever increasing annual fees on the local angling fraternity.

But following an incredible 27-year campaign which saw a group of Selkirk anglers become determined amateur sleuths, the Crown was forced to hand back the five-mile long salmon rights to their original owners in 2016.

The investigation uncovered a long forgotten and unknown Seventeenth Century Royal charter and a hoard of relevant documents hidden in a Glasgow cellar. In addition the team identified an unlikely local hero…a colourful habitual poacher wrongly convicted and jailed for alleged illegal fishing who caused UK law to be changed.

Now, retired Selkirk GP Dr Lindsay Neil, a veteran of Gulf War 1 and a key member of the ‘river detectives’ has published a fascinating account of the saga. 

A Hundred Years of Fishy Skulduggery lays bare the Crown’s unlawful taking of the angling rights from the then owners of the estates of Philiphaugh and Haining, and from The Common Good of the Royal Burgh of Selkirk.

Said Dr Neil: “The circumstances in which the Crown Estates predecessors, HM Woods, Forests and Land Revenue [HMW] decided our fishing rights belonged to them were very dodgy, as the book explains. The result was that the Crown started charging Selkirk anglers ever increasing amounts to fish their own river.

“Prior to 1912 the annual charge was just a negligible £1. But by 2003 the Crown was demanding a stunning £4,700. Little wonder we mounted our challenge to their ownership”.

A Hundred Years of Fishy Skulduggery traces the investigation from its humble beginnings in 1989 - when the team had little idea on how to proceed - through a journey of remarkable discoveries before submitting their evidence to the Crown Estate Commissioners (CEC) who resisted with all the legal might they could muster before being worn down. They never admitted defeat, but defeated they were...totally.

Dr. Neil suggests the Selkirk case could prove to be a valuable guide for other communities seeking to win back similar rights which were taken from them back in the mists of time.

HMW, based in luxurious premises in faraway London appears to have been a power mad outfit in the early years of the Twentieth Century, hellbent on controlling and administering as much land and as many rivers as it could get its hands on.

The mandarins first turned their attention to selected fishing rights on Ettrick Water in 2010, claiming their aim was to amalgamate the Philiphaugh, Haining and Selkirk Burgh stretches of river into a single lease and to discourage salmon poaching. But the waters on either side of town with their rights vested in the aristocracy remained untouched. 

HMW's move came despite the fact that Philiphaugh estate had been in possession of salmon rights since 1615, Haining estate since at least 1702, and Selkirk Burgh since 1119.

There was no indication of the burdensome leasing fees HMW's successors (Crown Estate Commission came into being in 1924) would levy in the later years of this illegal arrangement.

Following much toing and froing between HMW headquarters and Selkirk Burgh Council the transfer of ownership was completed in 1914, ending those hundreds of years of free fishing enjoyed by countless generations of Souters (natives of Selkirk).

But by the 1980s those Selkirk natives, or at least the membership of Selkirk Angling Association (SAA) were becoming increasingly restless as the Crown Estates bureaucrats piled on the financial agony.

The takeover of the town's fishing rights had shifted from an administrative tidying up exercise for the pen pushers to the creation of a cash cow to swell the bulging coffers of CEC. It was decided the tiny SAA would challenge the mighty CEC in a bid to bring ownership back home.

Dr Neil's book describes the long battle to assemble evidence for a case which might stand a chance of overturning what had been an illicit act by HMW 80 years earlier. 

A war chest was also built up in case the SAA had to go to court and confront the CEC's lawyers although Selkirk's anglers were able to tap a rich source for unofficial legal advice in the shape of now retired Sheriff Kevin Drummond, a fishing enthusiast and close friend of Dr Neil.

Without spoiling the story for those who decide to get a copy of A Hundred Years of Fishy Skulduggery, it is fair to say the campaigners benefited from a trio of 'near miracles' along the way. It was as though the gods were smiling on the sleuths of Selkirk.

As Dr Neil explained: "Our cause was helped enormously when a neglected and unrecognised King James VI charter turned up at an Edinburgh auction. The text proved that Philiphaugh's owners had enjoyed the right to fish Ettrick since the early Seventeenth Century".

The discovery of all the original correspondence between the parties in the period 1910 to 1925 stored in the cellar of a Glasgow law firm added weight to the Philiphaugh case while also backing the veracity of Selkirk Burgh's protests.

And finally the SAA stumbled on the case of that wrongly convicted local poacher who was sent to prison in 1913 when he couldn't pay a fine. There was an immediate outcry with protests by the local community which led to his case being raised on the floor of the House of Commons..

As a result UK law was changed which meant that from then on innocence took precedence until guilt was proved.

To read the fascinating story of the habitual reprobate we'll call Mr T you must get in touch with Dr Neil and obtain a copy of his newly published book.

Contact Dr Lindsay Neil by email at: drldneil@gmail.com