Contents: pages Introduction 2-4 Origins 5-10 Improving 11-14 Agricultural Shows 15-18 The Line 9 -24 Pedigrees & Pictures 25 -27 List of Pre WWII Champions 28 More Pedigrees 29-31 Note about Photos 32 More Photographs 33-34 Champion Male Lines 35-41 Notes 42 Terrier Show Classification 43 Lakeland Terrier Antecedents To 1980 Ron Punter Antecedents of the Lakeland Terrier Looking back from 1980 Revised edition 2009 Ron Punter This book is a not intended to be a definitive history of the breed but is simply a compilation of the research I have accumulated over many years. It is printed in the hope that it will be of interest as a supplement to information already published by others. Ron Punter Radcliffe 1998 This 2009 edition contains minor revisions of the text. Please honour copy write and credit me in any extracts used. In the ‘Shires’ Fox Terriers were required to flush out for the continuance of the chase, any fox that had taken refuge in an unstopped earth or drain. In Lake District Mountain Fox Hunting the terrier has to work in the huge piles of fallen boulders known as ‘borrans’ and actually come to grips with the fox and very often dispatch it. This distinction in the different work has sometimes been overlooked when comparing the Lakeland with other similar breeds of terrier, both by Lakeland Terrrier breeders and others. Fell Terriers were considered suitable for working with Otter Hounds as well as Fox Hounds and the West Cumberland Otter Hounds played a part in the formation of the Lakeland Terrier. Origins of the Lakeland Terrier ogs have been mans constant companion for at least twelve thousand years and some authors would have you believe they can D trace their breed back that far. Perhapes we would like to think that Lakelands are represented in cave paintings but the truth is that most breeds were created in Victorian times and the Lakeland a good deal later than that. The history of the of the Lakeland has been covered in some detail in several articles and we now have Frank Jones’s comprehensive book; However just to recap with a very short ‘potted history’:-Terrier breeds originate in the British Isles but its the French, 1359, spelling of Gace de la Vigne’s Poème Sur la Chasse that has been universally adopted - “ bons chiens Terriers”. The first mention in English print is of “Teroures” in 1486. In 1667 Nicholas Cox says there are two types of Working Terrier, one having shaggy coat and straight limbs, the other smooth coats and short bent legs. Some years later Blone wrote “everybody that is a fox hunter is of opinion that he hath a good breed, and some will say that the Terrier is a peculiar species of itself.” Paintings of Terriers from the early 1800’s generally show a mixed bunch but by the middle of the century several distinct Terrier breeds are emerging. Under Kennel Club registration the Fox Terrier becomes the show dog par excellence. The Terriers of the Lake District were of a working type and shown locally outside of Kennel Club recognition. By 1910 people were talking about the “new improved Fell Terrier” and in 1912 decided to adopt the name Lakeland Terrier. The Lakeland Terrier Association (now defunct) was founded in 1921 and regulated the breed - members were split on whether K.C. recognition was desirable or not. In 1928 a majority was obtained in favour of application for Kennel Club classification, which was subsequently granted, the breed was scheduled at the Kennel Club show in October of that year. Championship Status was achieved in 1931. It is the breeding of our dogs rather than the history of the breed that this book is about. The fact that Mr Tweedie’s Evergreen’s Double was the first champion is well known but are any of our present day Lakeland Terriers descended from him? From the evidence collected about the antecedents of the breed. The story which emerges is that hunt Terriers of the Lake District were developed into a recognisable type; Then a group of working men, centred on the little Cumbrian town of Egremont, nestling between the feet of Ennerdale and Eskdale, seized the opportunity of ‘improving’ these little dogs of the district. Its from the second stage improvement that modern Lakeland Terriers are descended. In the time of the great economic depression a few pounds for a puppy was a welcome income. Well off patrons such as Alice Spence and Tom Meageen provided incentive for breeders. Smart terriers can be produced by cross breeding. The Old English Wire-haired Black and Tan Terrier, was a rival to the Welsh Terrier in the late 1880’s and a better looking dog at the time. Walter S Glyn said that it was “manufactured for looks only” and “that he could not beget himself’ for no exhibit was shown that was out of one and by one. Black and Tans were soon defunct but Welsh go from strength to strength - Winning Crufts in recent years. A vindication of Glyn’s preference for pure blood lines. How pure bred is the modern Lakeland? My work with pedigrees started off, with a few volumes of the early stud books, a network pedigree was constructed of the interrelationships. This network was conceived like a wiring diagram - the problem was that as it grew sections had to be flipped over to stop lines from crossing. To add another dog often necessitated redrawing most of the diagram. When I came into possession of a full set of those Stud Books with Lakeland entries the chart was continued in the hope that some clear lines would emerge. Instead of the expected reduction in blood lines the chart just grew. After spending a couple of thousand hours on this project the only conclusion is that pre war breeding was diverse. It was impossible to take the chart any further because of the lack of records for the war years - even if I had any strength remaining for such a Herculean task. Sandy Hunt Terriers. Scamp Gillett The KC stud book spells Gillet with one ‘t’ but it is often written on pedigrees spelt like Spedding’s Scamp the famous razor blade - Gillett. Start of the Register Castle Bugler “The famous Castle Bugler” Brisco Expected Ehen Echo Ehen - spelt like the river rather than the dale. Ch Guardsman Guardsman is the only pre war Nobleman Champion in the line. Baffler Nobleman & Baffler - from the mists of the war years Oregill Captain The first ‘Stem’ of the mail line. Ch Blackwell Perfection A “Rod from the Stem”. Ch Blackwell Ravelsaye Recruit After the war Eddie Johnston’s Blackwell kennel comes to the fore. The tail male line Hunt Terriers n 1873, the Patterdale (originally known as the Helvellyn) and the Bald How (Matterdale) amalgamated to form the Ullswater IFoxhounds. Coincidentally the Kennel Club was founded in the same year. The legendary Joe Bowman became Huntsman in 1879 and carried the horn for forty or more years. One of the main distinguishing characteristics of Border Terriers is the Otter head said to have been brought into that breed via North Tyne Gyp from which they are all descended. Gyp’s pedigree goes back to Bowman’s Terriers’. It should be clearly understood that the Border head type was considered incorrect in a Lakeland Terrier and did not come from the Ullswater breeding. Ironically we cannot prove that any modern show Lakelands are descended from Bowman’s terriers. Long after the name Lakeland Terrier was officially agreed upon, Lakelands were often referred to as Patterdales, a strain that was said to be over a hundred years old even then. The name ‘Patterdale Terrier’ is completely misused nowadays being mostly applied to black working terriers and in particular smooth coated ones of a type that have nothing to do with Paterdale. Worse still we now have almost any type of Fell terrier masquerading as “Lakelands”. Mossop Nelson was the third generation to hunt in Patterdale; son of Aaron Nelson the Patterdale schoolmaster and first secretary of the Ullswater, his grandfather George was a Lakeland shepherd, all three had bred terriers for the hunt. When the Lakeland Terrier Association was founded in 1921 Mossop Nelsons thoughts on Terriers were published.- “Major (with C.R.Farrer) is by Jim Dalton’s (Blencathra) own dog which won a prize or two some years since. He was by Gillett, which I think belongs [to] the Cockermouth Otter Hounds and had a great name all the country over for gameness. Major’s mother is a real good little bitch and will face anything. She is from the old sort and by a white dog called Major. There was a Major Williams about Barrow-in-Furness, who kept a breed of white fox terriers which were said to be particularly game, and some went in for crossing with them, and I think most of them turned out very good. This is how Major got his name. I don’t care for crossing with whites myself. You never can tell what you are going to get, especially in colour, and I have a great feeling about keeping to the old breed of what has sometimes been called the Patterdale terrier; brown or blue in colour with a hard coat, a narrow front, a strong jaw, not snipy like the present show fox terrier, but at the same time not too bullet-like to show a suspicion Page 6 of bulldog cross - a short strong back, and legs which will help him to work his way underground and give him a much better chance of climbing over rough boulders when at work.