A PRESTIGIOUS angling award has been granted to the owner of a renowned fishing hotel in Lifton.
Anne Voss-Bark was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Angling at the Country Land and business Association Game Fair in Shuttleworth, Bedfordshire, last week.
Mrs Voss-Bark is the proprietor of the Arundell Arms in Lifton which this year celebrates 40 years under her ownership. The hotel has miles of salmon and trout fishing on the Tamar and tributaries as well as a famous fishing school.
The CLA made the award in recognition of the way Mrs Voss-Bark has made fishing accessible to many people and in particular has encouraged many women to take up the sport.
Anne and her husband Gerald Fox-Edwards bought the hotel when he was suffering from ill health. Unfortunately, he died on Anne's 45th birthday, leaving her to develop the business and bring up two young children.
She decided to learn more about fishing on the River Tamar and was taught how to fish by her keeper, Roy Buckingham.
She met the writer and broadcaster Conrad Voss-Bark when he came to stay at the hotel. He was a keen fly-fisher and within a year they were married. Sadly, her second husband died last December.
Mrs Voss-Bark has been a campaigner on several countryside issues and was awarded the MBE for services to tourism and fisheries in the South West.