New lease of life for Mansfield fishery after refurbishment

Paul Harding and his family have always been keen fishermen so, when his son spotted the popular fishery was up for sale, he jumped at the chance to come out of early retirement to take it on.

The 57-year-old has made the project a family affair, and now runs the fishery alongside his son Danny, and Danny’s father-in-law Kevin Dawson.

Taking over in November 2021, the trio set about improving the twenty acre site with an improved access road, installing new pegs across the five lakes and transformed a portacabin into a café serving hot food, which opened earlier this month.

Paul explains: “My son Danny has been into fishing since he was ten years old, and he spotted it was up for sale last year, so we jumped at the chance to buy it.

"The place was looking a little bit tired, so we decided to make it our project to inject some life back into the place, improve the access road and take it to the next level.

"We are really proud with how it’s looking so far, and we have lots more plans over the coming months.”

The next stage of development for the family-run business is to hold a series of fishing festivals and events in summer.

Paul is also hoping that the new facilities will attract walkers alongside their regular fishing customers due to its proximity to Sherwood Forest and picturesque walking routes.

"We’re hoping to attract walkers as well as our usual customers” he continued.

"It’s a lovely location, and now we’ve improved the access road down to us, we’re hoping more people will pay us a visit.

"The café is a project for our partners – my wife Jane, and Kevin’s partner June Buckingham run the café for us and they are loving having a purpose-built kitchen to work from.”

To find out more about their plans for the coming months, check out Sherwood Forest Fishery on Facebook.

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