Bedlington Terrier History
Some thoughts on the early development of the breed
The existence of terriers is mentioned in a 'Catalogue of Sporting Dogs' as long as the 15th century. A century later Dr. Caius wrote of the value of terriers for unearthing fox and drawing badger. In 1667,Nicholas Fox in 'The Gentleman's Recreation' suggested that the working type was fixed in two general kinds, one having shaggy coats and straight limbs , the other smooth coats and bent legs. Later there was more subdivision with the addition of the Country of origin to the terms "Rough" and "Smooth". In 1861John Meyrick writing in his book "House Dogs and Sporting Dogs" described The Rough Scottish Terrier thus : "His hair is long and matted and often soft and silky .His colour is usually a rich black and tan ,sometimes mixed with dark grey; it is impossible to look at his coat without suspecting a cross with a Colley. In height he is seldom over 14 inches , but sometimes weighs more than 16 or 18lbs. There are innumerable varieties of this breed".
The earliest origins of most breeds have become shrouded in myth and mystery. Though there are fairly clear indications of the Bedlington's history back to about 1790 many questions remain unanswered, for example where did the Bedlington Terrier coat arise ? One could assume that the Colley referred to by Meyrick was a shepherds dog , but a Colley was also a dark coloured , curly coated sheep once found in the borders. Is there a clue here in Meyricks description to the origin of the Bedlington coat ? One of the earliest mentions of a Bedlington like dog appears in the diary of a Hungarian nobleman, Z. Molar , written of a visit to the Rothbury district in 1702. Molar was visiting a 'Lord Charles' and writes of a hunt in the region of Rothbury. "To-day we hunted well. Lord Charles had mounted me on one of his best bays, a fine fellow..............after two good gallops we came home just before dusk ...........On the way we passed a gypsy encampment . They are not as colourful as our gypsies in Hungary. These people had small Agar (Hungarian greyhound) like dogs with hair like that of a lamb. Lord Charles told me they were great dogs for hare and rabbit and some of his grooms kept them for this sport". These woolly dogs were "the red of bricks" and the old bricks in Hungary are a rosy-red ,like a reddish liver Bedlington, thus this may be the earliest written record of the Bedlington precursors.
What of the feet ? In 1829 Captain Thomas Brown wrote of dogs brought from South America to Musselburgh which he described as differing markedly from other dogs in that the feet were "like rabbits" and "the nails, in place of being wedged shaped like those of other dogs , are curved like those of a cat". These dogs he also describes as "very elegant in make", as having pendulous ears , a long muzzle a tail covered with long silky hairs , pale sandy coloured hair , very long over his whole body and legs and "down his forehead, almost to the tip of his nose, is a ridge of very long hairs and which is also the case on his cheeks and jaws". The dogs had been in Musselburgh for about ten years and one at least was bred to a "Scotch Terrier " bitch. Could these little imports have passed characteristics to terriers in their native district which could have reached down to Carter Bar and beyond to mingle there their genes with those of our native terriers ? Whatever dogs may have played a part in the early development the Rough Scotch Terrier is the most likely main origin.
In those early days the terriers would be a fairly amorphous group evolved over the geographical region on either side of the Scottish border. Roads were few which led to formation of fairly isolated local dog populations with little contact between them. When the dogs moved it would have mainly been along the few road which did exist. Market days at the towns along the roads might have seen the sale of dogs as well as other animals and provided a chance for matings between dogs from different populations. It is romantic to imagine the proud farmer , gypsy or huntsman proudly boasting the hunting prowess of his dogs at the market and encouraging others to buy surplus puppies or negotiate a mating with his dogs. His dogs would have been bred for their hunting ability , but perhaps a particular physical feature of the most successful dogs might have been passed on with the hunting prowess. Each area would have a terrain which governed the type of terrier most likely to succeed at hunting , short legs might suit one locality where long legs would be more appropriate in an other and dogs would be chosen for mating which showed the useful characteristics. Because of the geographical isolation the dogs of a particular area would be fairly inbred thus any physical appearance which happened to coincide with good hunting ability would likely to be perpetuated and eventually fixed. To this day , in the Lake District , there a types of terrier recognized as originating from a particular valley , e.g. the Patterdales. In this way many of the terrier breeds arose and this explains why so many of our terrier breeds are named after geographical locations.
The publication of Sir Walter Scott's novel "Guy Mannering" in 1815 led to great interest in the terriers of "Dandie Dinmont", a fictional character but based on a farmer of Scott's acquaintance .Scott describes how a letter was sent to the farmer addressed to "Dandie Dinmont" which led to the naming of the breed . Letters in The Field in the 1860's led to further correspondence about the Bedlington Terrier. One of the letters mentions "the Cowney dogs" which originated in the Hawick area traveled down that side of Scotland to England and there is evidence that the Cowney dogs were pale headed Rough Scottish Terrier type dogs. Another writer speaks of pale headed terriers , kept at a toll house near Carter Bar. Carter Bar is on the road from Hawick to the Newcastle area and a further letter writer recorded that a Cowney brought some of the family's dogs to Morpeth round about 1800 when he moved there to live. By 1820 we begin to hear of Bedlington-like dogs around Morpeth........which would just give time for some of the little South American terrier's blood to have found its way from Musselburgh to Hawick and into the Cowney line ! I have no proof what-so-ever that the rabbit feet with long nails , the hair on the head , the pendulous ears and the elegance which some later Bedlingtons show came from the imported terrier "Canis Serpentis Destructor" , but it is a romantic possibility . Certainly it is recorded that at least on mating took place with a "Rough Scotch Terrier" and the Cowneys brought pale headed Rough Scotch Terriers to Morpeth.
Morpeth is only a few miles from Bedlington and the development of the breed is intimately tied to this region of Northumberland in the 1820's . A bitch called Phoebe was brought to Bedlington from Alnwick and became the property of Ned Cotes , the vicars son . Ned died young and Phoebe was taken over by Joseph Aynsley (this was often spelt Ainsley) and Pheobe was mated to James Anderson's liver dog Piper. Both these can be traced back to a dog named "Old Flint" . Other breeders at the time who were involved with breeding were Thomas Thompson and William Clark. Aynsley is usually credited with naming the terriers they produced "Bedlingtons" . The name Bedlington has been in use now for more than 170years , before which they were probably known variably as Rothbury Terriers , Northumberland ,Northern Counties , Rodbury , Miner's Terriers and the Northumberland Fox Terrier" . An early mention of the Rothbury Terrier is in the "Life" of James Allen , a Northumberland piper , published early in the nineteenth century . The Allen's were a branch of the Yetholme gypsies , the 'piper' being born about 1820 in the forest of Rothbury . He was the youngest son of William Allan , a tinker by trade , a piper of great merit and 'the devil for the sport' . Otter hunting was his strong point and he was popular with the gentleman of the area because he always kept a number of the Rothbury-type terriers , which it is said could be 'relied on for good sport' . His two favourites were 'Pincher' and 'Peachem'.
A point much debated is whether the 'Dandie Dinmont' was made from the Bedlington or vice versa. Theories abound re the connection between the 'Dandie Dinmont' and the 'Bedlington'. It is very likely that they both originated from the same precursors . Early litters are claimed to have contained both long legged and short legged versions , probably the short legged types were separated from the long legged types for breeding purposes until they became fixed as distinct strains.
Photographs of Aynsley and Clark's dogs show them to be similar to modern Bedlingtons , but they were ,coarse , heavy eared and similar to the Rough Scotch Terriers described by Meyrick and close to the description of the Cowney dogs . William Clark in particular used "in and in" breeding which would have fixed many of the characteristics these early breeders sought to perpetuate. The purity of the breed was carefully protected by the early breeders and many of today's Bedlingtons can be traced back to these early examples of the breed . Pedigrees can be found in "Redmarshall" for early dogs , interest in exhibiting the breed dates back to the earliest dog shows thus many pedigrees can be traced through kennel club stud books .
Joseph Aynsley William Clark
If you have any early Bedlington pictures or information on Bedlington history please contact me