A
SHORT HISTORY OF THE NORFOLK TERRIER
© Eileen Needham
The present day Norfolk Terrier began life
as a show breed in 1932 when, as the drop-eared
Norwich Terrier, it was accepted on the Kennel
Club breed register, but it is interesting to
look at its possible evolution.
East Anglia, that part of south-east England
which bulges out into the North Sea extending
from The Wash to the Thames Estuary, is
particularly flat and low (many inland places
still at only sea-level), and contained, at one
time, in the northern Norfolk and Cambridgeshire
parts of this area, large marshes known as
“The Fens”. These fens were largely
drained in the sixteenth century by Dutch
engineers. As a result, the area is covered by a
network of canals, known locally as
“drains”. The land is fertile and is
now an important arable farming region, producing
most of the country’s cereal crops.
Historically, small terrier-type dogs were
popular amongst the farming and sporting
community to use on rats and other vermin. It is
possible that some of these terriers were the
forerunners of the early Norwich Terrier.
During the nineteenth century some of the
Undergraduates at Cambridge University bought
small terrier dogs from a dog dealer named
Charles (Doggy) Lawrence. These small terriers,
which were often red or a black and tan colour,
were used mainly for catching rats around the
colleges. They became known as Trumpington
Terriers, taking the name from the street in
Cambridge where many students lived. Their origin
is not really known but there is a suggestion
that a small Irish Terrier and a bigger type of
Yorkshire Terrier had been used in their
breeding.
At that time Mr. Jodrell Hopkins, of Trumpington
Street, Cambridge, bought a small brindle,
Aberdeen-type, terrier bitch, and mated her to a
game little red dog, which had a long silky coat,
belonging to Doggy Lawrence. A puppy from that
union, Rags, was given to a Mr. Jack Cooke,
Master of the Norwich Staghounds. Rags was a
small red terrier with a shaggy, harsh, red coat
and prick ears (although in those days many
terriers had their ears cropped). He was a
wonderful worker and an excellent sire.
Mr. Lewis (Podge) Low, the son of a local
veterinary surgeon, was keen on a good terrier,
and owned a smooth-haired, white, prick-eared
bitch called Ninety. He had several litters from
her sired by Rags.
Mr Lewis (Podge) Low
with the white prick-eared bitch Ninety and one
of her puppies. September 1905.
All the puppies were red, and some were
bought by Mr. Frank Jones, First Whip to the
Norwich Staghounds. He found them to be in great
demand amongst the local sporting fraternity, and
so he began to breed them himself. Later, when he
went to work as a roughrider to a Mr. Stokes of
Market Harborough, he became known as
"Roughrider Jones". He sold his terrier
pups far and wide, some being exported to
America, where they became known as "Jones
Terriers".
One of Jones' sources of supply was the stud
groom to Mr. Jack Cooke, Mr. Horace Cole by name,
who had bred several litters out of a small,
wirehaired terrier bitch, and sired by one of
Cooke's Trumpington Terriers. Interestingly, Mr.
Cole's daughter, Mrs. Rosie Panks, started to
breed Norwich Terriers herself in 1935.
In trying to establish the type he wanted, Jones
crossed his stock with other terriers he fancied.
Mr. R.J. Read (later to become the Breed Club's
first President) bought a puppy in 1909 from a
litter by Rags out of Ninety, and he also went on
to experiment in breeding to get the sort of
terrier he wanted. He used a Bedlington Terrier
to obtain more drive, and later, a brown (see note) Staffordshire Bull
Terrier bitch from a strain which he admired
belonging to the Countess of Kimberley to correct
the Bedlington coat. From this he crossed to a
small Irish Terrier and then bred back to Mr.
Jack Cooke’s strain, eventually producing,
in 1929, "Horsted Mick". At about the
same time Mr. W.E. West began his
“Farndon” line with a bitch from
Roughrider Jones and, in 1912, Mrs. Fagan also
began with a bitch called Brownie whose dam,
Flossie, red with a black back, was very
game. Many famous names can be traced back
to Brownie.
Babbling Binks was
born in 1925 and was the grandsire of Little
Jane. This photograph gives an indication of the
breed’s Irish Terrier ancestry but one can
see where retouching was done to remove a lot of
coat and make the dog altogether slimmer than he
really was.
So, the foundations of the show Norwich were
being established. There appeared to be no actual
planning of a new breed, breeders simply mating
their bitches to Rags' line because they liked
the type and colour of the offspring. They
continued with their efforts to breed true to
that type.
Following Kennel Club recognition in 1932, the
breed was scheduled first at Richmond
Championship Show, where fourteen dogs were
entered and Best of Breed going to Mrs. Fagan's
Smudge, a dark grizzle and tan prick-ear (also
described as black-backed by Mrs. Fagan), a
grandson of Brownie, and the sire later of the
first drop ear champion, Mrs. NormandyRodwell's
Champion Airman's Brown Smudge, a male bred in
1932. Smudge, incidentally, also sired the first
prick -eared bitch champion, Ch. Miss Manette,
also bred and owned by Mrs. Fagan.
The first actual champion in the breed, Ch.
Biffin of Beaufin, was owned by Mrs. E.
Mainwaring, who liked her terriers to have their
ears dropped, and, as Biffin wanted to prick his
ears it is said she weighted them to keep them
down. Biffin has had an influence on the
breed as a whole, both ear types being able to
trace back lines to him.
Ch.Biffin of Beaufin
(left), born in 1932, and Little Jane (right),
sire and dam of Tiny Tim of Biffin.
Another early drop-ear breeder was Mrs. Guy
Blewitt of the “Boxed” prefix. She
owned a famous dog called Tobit, a wonderful
ratter. She also had the distinction of breeding
the second drop-eared champion, Tinker Bell,
whelped in 1933.
Tobit, born in 1928,
the sire of the second drop-ear champion Tinker
Bell.
With the advent of shows following Kennel
Club recognition, ears became all important, many
breeders preferring the prick-ears and, indeed,
some members of the Breed Club Committee did try
to insist that only prick-ears should be
recognised. Interbreeding between the two types
of ear carriage did continue for a time but,
eventually, breeders kept to one or other of the
ear types. Even in the thirties the breed had
begun to divide, and by the end of the 1940s
there were very few Norwich with mixed
ear-carriage breeding in the first two or three
generations.
Miss Macfie with her
drop-ear Norwich and her Dalmatians.
Miss Marion Sheila Scott Macfie, breeder of the
“Colonsay” Dalmatians, joined the
Norwich Terrier Club in 1935. She preferred the
drop-ears and founded her Colonsay Norwich on
Mrs. Mainwaring's Tiny Tim of Biffin, and the
Hon. Mrs. Brooke's Kinmount Pip. Miss
Macfie bred and showed extensively and
successfully, and it is largely due to her
efforts that the drop-ears were kept going in
such strength throughout the years of World War
II.
Tiny Tim of Biffin
(left) born in 1933, bought by Miss Macfie as a
puppy, her first drop-ear Norwich, with Colonsay
Banjo (centre) and Colonsay Attaboy (right).
When championship shows started up again
after the War, the Norwich, going into the ring
untrimmed (and often ungroomed as well) did not
look like show dogs, and it was the prick-ears
who were winning most Challenge Certificates and
beginning to make the most progress.
Ch Colonsay Junior,
born in 1952, grandsire of Ch Colonsay Orderley
Dog and Ch Banston Belinda.
Miss Macfie’s Ch
Minx of Furzyhurst, born in 1956 (left). Colonsay
Musical Box born in 1955 and Ch Colonsay Junior
(right)
Although there were a few outstanding
drop-ears in the late 1950-60s, with a winning
pair owned by Miss Macfie, Ch. Colonsay Orderley
Dog with 19 C.C.s and Ch. Colonsay Banston
Belinda with 12 C.C.s, (a record at that time for
a bitch), and which remained unbroken until
recent times, drop-ear entries went down until,
in 1964, they were only about a quarter of those
of the prick-ears.
Ch Colonsay Orderley
Dog was born in 1960 and won 19 C.C.s
Miss Macfie had already begun a campaign to
give each type a separate register within the one
breed, but it took seven years before the two
types actually achieved separate recognition in
1964. Although the Club had wanted separate
registers within the one breed, the Kennel Club
had insisted on two separate breeds being formed,
with different names. The more dominant
prick-ears kept the name "Norwich
Terrier", and, after some debate, it was
agreed that the drop-ears should become the
"Norfolk Terrier".
Miss Macfie with her
record breaking Bitch C.C. winner Ch Banston
Belinda. This record lasted until 1996.
Quality amongst the drop-ears at that time
was poor, and there was little in the way of any
breed type. However, new and enthusiastic
breeders and exhibitors began to join the
established kennels, and all worked hard through
the years to achieve their common goals to
produce the typy, sound, showy Norfolk Terriers
we see today, and which can hold their own in
all-breed championship show competition.
Note:
“Brown” is not a recognised colour in
Staffordshire Bull Terriers at the present time.
*
* *
“A
Short History of the Norfolk Terrier”
by © Eileen
Needham ,
is taken, in part, from the following articles
and information:
-The Early History of the Norwich Terrier:
compiled from information supplied by early
breeders
(The Norwich Terrier Club Year Book 1932)
-Further light on the possible origin of the
Norwich Terrier:
by Monica (Joy) Taylor
(The Norwich Terrier Handbook 1960)
-Early Days:
by Sheila Monckton
(The Norwich Terrier Club Hand Book 1960)
-The First Twenty five Years:
by Marjorie Bunting.
An account of the history of the show Norfolk
since recognition as a separate breed in 1964.
(The Norfolk Terrier Club Handbook 1989).
.
