The Allcocks Norwich Spoon

Hello, today I am going to talk about the Allcocks Norwich Spoon.


Actually I think the term Norwich spoon is a general description of the design, and a number of companies actually made or distributed them.



The one pictured I think came from Allcocks though.


The basic design was an egg shaped,concave (or convex depending upon which way you are looking at it) spoon. There was usually a hole at either end to hold the swivel and hook respectively.


The spoon was then decorated,(you may see the term chased, I think that just means decorated). This particular spoon was described as half chased and plain outside. That is, the top half of the outside of the spoon is decorated and the bottom half was plain. Sometimes the two halves of the face can be different colours. I have seen them with gold gilt coloured top halves and plain silver bottom halves. The inside of the spoon was often painted half red, and the other half left silver.


The decoration on the face side is very pretty and intricate, depicting a scale pattern and the gill cover of a fish. The patterns can vary a bit depending upon manufacturer, but generally look like the photo above.


This particular Norwich spoon has a red, cut glass eye that can spin around a pin. The collection of glass eyed lures is a niche within itself,and a very profitable niche if you can get hold of any lures! The glass eye above is fairly common and not the most sought after type. Later blogs will try to give you more information about the subject of glass eyed lures. Basically though you will see the spoons with eyes as,or similar to the eye above,eyes that are held in clasps (like how a finger ring holds the stone), eyes that are painted onto the lure and sometimes no eyes at all.


Sometimes the treble hook is covered with a tassle of, usually,red wool. Obviously this one is plain.

They come in a range of sizes and Allcocks catalogued a range that included 1 1/4, 1 1/2, 1 3/4, 2, 2 1/4, 2 1/2 and 3 inches.

I think the above Norwich came from the 1950s. However this general design was around in the early 1900s. One reference I have seen indicates that early Norwich spoons were made by a company called Gregory. They were based in Birmingham and their lures are very collectible. They allowed Allcocks to distribute their lures for them. Sometimes you will find the spoons stamped with the makers name and I have seen both Gregory and Allcocks stamped Norwich spoons. Were there any others?

The eBay value of these varies with age and name and glass eye. I think the above lure sold for about £10. The more basic,more modern versions may sell for just £3 or £4. As I write this blog there is an older, Norwich currently on sale that has got up to £26 after just one days listing. This has the best type of glass eye. The seller indicates that although his lure is not named, he reckons it comes from Allcocks, because the glass eye has 4 clasps which is apparently indicative of Allcocks.

OK thats enough on The Norwich Spoon for todays blog.

Thanks for reading, the next lure to come up is the Hardy Golden Sprat.