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The Cow Families
"A herd is only as good as the females that make that herd up." Probably the most significant and prophetic statement ever stated within an agricultural setting, blindingly obvious many may think, never the less not always one that is adhered to. The same can be said of those that make up the club 'herd'. Each of us has a herd that makes up the overall Club Herd, and within that club herd are all the same problems we have to face as individuals, but with somewhat more dire consequences if we get this part wrong. We will all gain or lose parts or entire families from our individual herds, however, this only becomes of major consideration to the club if the loss of those individuals is also a loss of that family from the club as well as the individual.
There are at present twenty five known families within the club, and possibly two other families in the Netherlands of purely Native Hereford descent. Of these Native families four are further sub divided by name, and several others by divergence at a point over ten generations from today. These twenty five families have a variety of origins within the distant past. There are sixteen breeders that can be traced back to the closed Herd Book of 1878, from where these twenty five families descend. There are however, several who are perhaps of greater importance than the others.
John Hewer is perhaps the most significant of these breeders. His family, father William and himself are credited with fixing the prepotent white face with red body colour. Bulls from both William and John Hewer were used extensively by many of the early breeders to fix colour markings, and to produce a type of cattle to become famous. Dainty is the family that can be traced directly back to John Hewer that is still within the Club herd of today.
Philip Turner of the Leen herd has two families or tribes as he preferred to term them. The first was one that originated with him and the second, and more famous one is one that orginated with W Child. The first is the Almond tribe whose representive today is the Laxfield Spark family. The other is the Gaudy family or the Wigmore Tribe as P Turner described them. This family is split into three sections within the Club herd. These are the Gaudys, the Albany Grace family and the Freetown "C" family.
Thomas Jeffries is the next breeder who has more than one family still left in today's Club herd. Thomas is famous as the breeder of Cotmore, the bull who weighed in excess of one and a half tons, and walked all the way to the inaugural Royal Show at Oxford in 1839, which he duly won; suggesting something more than just conformation in this bull. The first of Thomas's tribes by descent are the Countesses. These became famous at Eyton under E C Tanner, and the Vern under de Q Quincey, in more recent times; giving us the bull Vern Robert. The second of these tribes was the Prettymaids, which today is at Albany. However, the fame of this line is more recognisable through the breeding of George Pitt of Chadnor Court, and as the Judy family at the Haven.
William Tudge first started farming in Radnorshire and then moved twice, the first
time to just outside Ludlow and the second time to Adforton, the birthplace of his
wife. He had started to assemble a herd of Herefords at Llangunlo, his Radnorshire
holding, and continued breeding them at his two later holdings. He was a relatively
successful showman and breeder of his day and has left us two distinguished tribes,
the Reginas and the Belladonnas. This latter tribe is further sub-
A second breeder to make a similar journey to William Tudge was Benjamin Rogers. He started farming at Doluggan in Radnorshire and progressed to The Grove, Pembridge. Rogers was a contempory of John Hewer. Both Rogers and Hewer were successful bull breeders, who relied on the sale or hire of a bull for income. In the first ten volumes of the Herd Books, Ben Rogers is recorded as having sold between three and four hundred bulls for breeding, and nearly all sold at a modest price. Included in those bulls were some of exceptional quality. These include such bulls as Sir Benjamin, Bolingbroke, Sir Roger, and The Grove 3rd. Bolingbroke and The Grove 3rd were sold to Philip Turner at the Leen, while Sir Roger was sold to William Tudge, by whom he produced Lord Wilton. This dominant and successful breeder of the early period of the Hereford has left us the Linnett family, the Prettymaids at the Grove.
Thomas Carwardine of Stocktonbury owned the famous herd of the 1870's and early 1880's. His dispersal caused a place in history when Lord Wilton was sold to an American for the sum of £3990. However, the contract was not honoured and Lord Wilton was resold the following day for £1000. Thomas Carwardine had also sold other cattle to the USA, the most famous of which was Anxiety 4th from Gaylass by Anxiety. His contribution to the present Club herd is the Julias and the Susannahs. The Julias have in their pedigree the bull Lord Wilton. They moved on to the Vern at the turn of the twentieth century with R Medlicott, who sold out to R de Q Quincey, which included the cattle in the sale. The Susannahs have passed through many hands until today they are members of Les Cook's Albany herd.
Mr Thomas Edwards of Wintercott farm in Ivington has influenced the Club herd considerably with two very prestigious tribes. Although records show that he bred for a reasonably short period within the herd book, he and his family had farmed at Wintercott for a much longer period. After his death, his herd was then run by his wife and his nephew Allen Edwards Hughes. Thus the influence of the Wintercott herd is about one hundred years. Mr Edwards most celebrated achievement was the winning of the Royal Show with Leominster1634. The two tribes that are left today from Wintercott are the Plums and the Marias. The Marias were part of a tribe that produced Leonora which was female champion three times, and at the dispersal of A E Hughes herd went to Mansel to become the Marias, ending up at Llandinabo and Marquis today. The Plum tribe moved from Wintercott to the Newman Brothers and on their split to F H Newman at Wickton. From Wickton the Club line went to Quisne, from where two families developed. One going to the Vern and Llandinabo; the other going eventually to the Weston herd and then to Springhill as the Potency family.
The Griffith family has produced some of the finest Hereford cattle bred to date. It started at Brierley, moved to Aldersend, then on to Little Tarrington and finally to Temple Court. The most famous of these breeders is probably H R Griffiths, who bred many Tarrington bulls including Tarrington Optmist, the head of the English bull tail that all bulls of today descend from. It is however his grandfather that left his mark today with the Amorous tribe. This tribe started at Brierley under S Griffiths, moved with his son W Griffith to Aldersend, from where a member of the tribe was sold to P E Bradstock of Freetown. Here it became the Freetown "T" family, and the most numerous at Freetown. It then passed to Llandinabo to become the Amorous family.
The Dowager tribe started life under Mr S Jones, but was made famous by the Tanners,
Arthur and Craig, father and son. Originally from Sharwardine Craig Tanner moved
to Eyton-
The breeding of Mr R L Burton is extremely interesting. The tribe that is at present
descended from his breeding is the Silver family. However, the routes of this family
are laid firmly in the Dowton Castle tribe of T A Knight. This gentleman was a discerning
breeder of the latter part of the eighteenth and early ninteenth centuries. He was
an Oxford graduate whose family lived in what is described as "Tomkins" country.
He was an eminent botanist, who had an interest in improving the native cattle of
Herefordshire. His cattle are best described as "Greys", and were very highly sought
after in the early days before John Hewer, and his contempories, stamped the white
face and red coloured body as the pre-
Two of the families come from quite obscure backgrounds. The Ivydene and Laurel tribes are bred originally by two different people, with a similar background. They both used hired bulls to produce their offspring. This would suggest that they were probably tenant farmers whose need to use high quality bulls was best served by hiring bulls from the likes of John Hewer, Ben Rogers and Philip Turner. This was the AI of the nineteenth century. Mr H Hall started the Ivydene line with Blossom 3/127. It changed hands very quickly, first to a J Williams and then to R Bach, who bred this line for over twenty years, and several generations before it moved again until ended up with Billingsley herd of J Williams for about forty years, then moving to its present location the Prees herd. The Laurel tribe started at B Hawkins of Orleton, Ludlow. He hired or bought, over a period of twenty or more years, bulls from J Hewer, Ben Rogers and others to use within his herd. It did not appear to be anything other than a herd of commercial beef cattle. There is no record of him showing, but he has left the club the Laurel tribe.
The last of the early breeders to have put foundation stock into today's club herd
is J H Arkwright. He bred Hereford cattle, probably from the middle of the nineteenth
century to the time of his death in 1904. The Hampton Court herd of their time has
left six families of significance. Four of the cows were from unknown cows served
by and produced a heifer by Reliance 278. Strictly speaking J H Arkwright did not
start the Curly family, that honour goes to a Mr Hickman, who sold Hickman's Pleasant,
a daughter of Reliance to Mr Arkwright. The six tribes are Lively, Silk, Gaymaid,
Oyster Girl, the favourite of the Arkwrights, Pearl, and the most successful of all
the Arkwright tribes, the Curlys. The Livelys are more difficult to trace than many.
According to H C Dent they may have come from the Newton herd that bred Sir David.
The Silk family was started out of an unknown cow by Reliance 278. It progressed
to Arkwright's son-
