© Hereford Traditional Cattle Breeders Club Maintained by Local PC Care
William Tudge
Thomas Carwardine was a farmer and showman from the north east of Herefordshire, close to the Worcestershire border. Stocktonbury, the name of the village where he was based, and that of his herd, became, in a very short period, synonymous with what was the best in the Hereford world.
Thomas Carwardine started keeping Herefords in the early 1860's with purchases from Mr Monkhouse of the Stow, and Mr Ashwood of the Brakes, Lentwardine. He also purchased females from Mr Middleton of Easthampton and Mr Rawlings of Stoke, near Tenbury, Worcestershire. Thomas then used bulls from the leading herds of the day, Counsellor 1939, from Philip Turner; Heart of Oak 2035 from J Rae; De Cote 3060 from Thomas Edwards; and Longhorns 4711 from Henry Taylor. This breeding line would have been of top quality without the addition of one of the most outstanding bull of all time, W Tudge's Lord Wilton 4740. Out of Lady Claire by Sir Roger 4133, he changed hand three times in his life. Firstly he was purchased by Lewis Lloyd of Monk's Orchard, Surrey. Here he became famous for the production of steers of the highest quality when shown at Smithfield. Lord Wilton 4740 was exhibited at the 1879 Kilburn International Show. It was here that Thomas Carwardine made the speclative move to secure the purchase of Lord Wilton 4740. Having achieved his aim Thomas now moved his cattle forward into the realms of immortality. He used Lord Wilton 4740, over the next five years with considerable success. It was at the Stocktonbury dispersal that Lord Wilton 4740 really made a name for himself. On the first day of the sale he was purchased by an American, named Vaughan, for the princely sum of £3990. Unfortunately for the family, Vaughan could not honour his purchases, and all were resold on day two of the auction, only Lord Wilton did not match the figure paid for his purchase, which was settled at £1000, still a considerable sum by modern standards.
Thomas Carwardine has two tribes still left in the Club herd, two others in the AI
list and a fifth that has recently died out. The first of these is the Julia tribe.
There are three families within the tribe, all coming from the cow Julia Vern 15th
(69/600). The first line comes from the cow Julia Vern 27th (80/820). This cow was
purchased by the Jones's of Penatok, where she produced the cow Penatok Julia 7th
() who was purchased by E A Downton for his Springhill herd. Today this line is at
Lower Eaton. Another of Julia Vern 15th (69/600) daughters was Julia Vern 20th (73/236),
she is the dam of Juliet (73/236) bred by Evans and Rogers, and bought back in by
the Vern. In turn Juliet (73/236) produced Julia Vern 28th (81/642). This cow is
the base of the other two lines of the Julia tribe, plus a third line at Llandinabo
that bred out some time ago. The first of her daughters to start a family still here
today was Julia Vern 34th (UP/G28/82), who produced a son Penatok Crusader (PA/K1/85),
Royal Show Champion 1955, and also the male part of the winning Burke Trophy team
of that year. She also produced a female line at Penatok, starting with Penatok Julia
which went on to produce a line that was purchase by E A Downton for his Springhill
herd to compliment his other line of Julias. Llandinabo purchased from the Vern,
Julia Vern 49th which unfortunately did not breed a continuous line and the Julias
were re-
The Julia tribe started at Carwardine with the cow Cinderella by Counsellor. It then follows the classical breeding of Thomas Carwardine, with the next generation by Heart of Oak, then the next by De Cote. It was Verbena by De Cote that brought this tribe to prominence, finishing with Godietia (15/104) by Lord Wilton at the death of Thomas Carwardine. Richard S de Q Quincey inherited this family when he purchased the Vern in the early twenties from the Medilcott family.
The second tribe still going today is called the Susannah tribe. This comes from
a cow called Lily, however, it is named after an exceptional cow called Susannah
(41/780). This cow won the Royal Show Female Championship in 1909 and then went on
to breed one of the most influential bulls of the early twentieth century, Sir Sam
33131. Sir Sam 33131, bred by Lord Rhondda and used by him very successfully, was
purchased by G H Drummond for his Pitsford Hall herd, which at the time of its dispersal
in 1924 had many of the better breeding lines of the country in it. Of the homebred
females sold many were by Sir Sam 33131, and one, lot 80, True Blue of Pitsford (DJ/D23/54-
The line was continued through Sir Sam 33131 half sister Sally (48/974), by Candidate 24465, over several generations to its present day home at Albany. This line is one of our rarer tribes with only a few females living.
The Juaneta tribe was with us until quite recently. As a tribe it was renowned at Stocktonbury, but became a household name in the very capable hands of the Robinson family at Lynhales. Here is was called the called the Countess family, not to be confused with the other Countess family at Eyton and the Vern. This family was purchased by the Jones's of Atok in the early 1930's and then to Penatok at the split of the Atok. From here it went to Springhill where it died out in 2002.
