A Bit About The Man Himself

Walton was born in Stafford, a ten minute drive from Izaak Walton Brewhouse, in 1593. Izaak's father was an innkeeper as well as a landord but died before he was the age of three. His mother then married another innkeeper who ran the Swan in Stafford town. He was educated in Stafford before moving to London as a teenager. While in London he trained as a liner draper, often described as an ironmonger, and went on to join the ironmongers company in 1618.  He met both his first and second wife while in London. In 1644 Walton retired from his trade and purchased a farm with land just north of his birth place, a very short distance from the Brew house at Shallowford. Izaak Walton left the cottage in his will to the people of his home town in Stafford which is now a museum.  A few years later he returned to London, and then followed his first addition of 'The Compleat Angler' in 1653. He never claimed to be an expert in fishing with a fly so he spent the last 40 years of his life with others who enjoyed fishing and collecting further information for the Compleat Angler. There was a second, third, forth and fifth edition written.