BERT GRIPTON

[gonetoearth 5,144]

whiltst were on the subject of yesteryear does any one remember a man from

lancashire 70s called john finergan used to work white leggy russel types and ran

a few hounds ,

[Barrie 1,325]

Moving read 'Barrie'. Have you not thought about getting some of your own memoires in print?

 

 

lol.. Ill second that ..Although Barrie is a very busy man.Like to hear a few tales Barrie from the old times mate

 

To be truthful I'd be scared to.... But sometimes when we do have a few of the "old crowd" around and get reminiscing Chris'll say "Listen to you buggers, you sound just like Old Bert".... and for those that new him well there'd be an added "Actually" .

 

So probably not a good idea and best left to those who enjoy seeing their name up in lights

 

I guess we were lucky in as much as we hunted with the B.C.O.H. which was a melting pot of some of the finest sporting characters in our lifetime.... the likes of Bert, R.P. Williams and his family, Raymond Childs, Walter Lawrence (ladies hairdresser/boxer and one of the best pound for pound fighters I ever saw even when he was 70) who received an additional petrol allowance during the war to assist his efforts in reducing the badger poplulation, Brian Nuttall, George Meekin, Walt Aulty, David Jones, Ronald Jones.... the list is endless.

 

We really were just very fortunate

 

Y.I.S. - Barrie

[CO CHISE 329]

There was to be a book on B.Gripton and he gave all his photo albums to this person who was to write it and never saw the photos again nor was there any book forthcoming . Or so the story goes if my memory is correct

I don't know of any other book BG wrote , if there was I'd like to be enlightened .

 

Selwyn your memory is spot on .

 

I was close friends with Bert from the early 70's up until his death and particularly during the time he was terrierman to the Border Counties Otterhounds (BCOH) under the Mastership of Mr R.P. Williams who also hunted the hounds.

 

Bert was terrierman to the BCOH up until 1977 when the otter was placed on the protected list. The BCOH retained all their original hounds, but then reformed as the Border Counties Minkhounds under the Mastership of their new Huntsman John Newton. Bert's hearing had started to fail by then, terrier locators were still a relatively new invention and shunned by most of the old school, so Brian Nuttall took over the role as terrierman for a couple of seasons and then I did it for the next 17. It goes without saying that they were both difficult acts to follow and most definitely impossible to match. But they were fun times and ones spent in the very best of company.

 

In those early days, Bert drove for James Baker Shoes. Myself, my girlfriend (now wife of 30+ years) and my cousin (who was my digging partner in those days) travelled the length and breadth of the country in the "big red van" with Bert. During the summer months we'd religiously hunt otters on Wednesdays/Saturdays and Bank Holidays, and on Sundays we'd either do a terrier show or Game Fair.... or the "other things" one always did on a Sunday.

 

Together the 4 of us.... along with the likes of the late Barry Jones and others, helped man the first ever stand which the Fell & Moorland had at a game fair. That was at the CLA Game Fair Glanusk Park in 1976, which was also the year of H.R.H. Prince Charles's investiture as The Prince of Wales.

 

On that occasion, whilst doing his tour of the Game Fair in an open topped Range Rover, on seeing 4 pens of "well worked terriers" H.R.H. asked the driver to make an unscheduled stop, got out of the vehicle and spent a very relaxed 15 minutes or so chatting about the relative merits of each dog and the work which they'd done. It was pretty clear that he had more than a "passing interest" .

 

I believe the book in question is most likely Phil Drabble's "Of Pedigree Unknown" as to the best of my knowledge Bert never did get around to publishing a book, even though he referred to it on many occasions. And I saw the hand written manuscript which Selwyn referrred to, but in all honesty it would have taken a very good "ghost writer" to have turned it into a fully fledged book. Nevertheless, I'd still give my left testicle to get my hands on it now.

 

For anyone fortunate enough to own a first edition copy of Pedigree Unknown (I've just put mine down) the picture of Bert which has been posted on this thread appears on the back cover and was taken in Lizard Lane where Bert lived in a tiny "one up and one down" cottage. Also on the front cover of the book is a picture of "Old Jack" a very close associate of my late father's "hand slipping" a "rag whippet".

 

I've clear recollections from my early teens of Drabble waiting on our doorstep for my father to return home from work when he was doing his research for "Of Pedigree Unknown" and many of the references to whippets, sporting poultry and the larger sporting breeds relate to men I was fortunate enough to have grown up with. Sadly (in some ways) only the first edition contains pictures of their dogs as they found out much earlier than Bert where Drabble's real interests lay and he was told never to use any pictures of them or their dogs again.... and you just didn't argue with those men !!!

 

There was indeed a documentary interview with Bert shown on BBC in the early 's, it was conducted by Phil Drabble and entitled "The Terrierman". He did something very similar with my father maybe a decade or so earlier on "rag whippets". I still have a copy of the Bert interview, but sadly not one of my father as VCRs hadn't been invented then.

 

When Bert died he was buried at Shifnal Church. As he was laid to rest David Jones, the then David Davies Huntsman, an equally well respected terrierman and someone for whom Bert had the greatest of affection often describing as "the best huntsman you'll ever see" blew "Gone to Ground" on an old hunting horn which still sits on my mantlepiece and which I'd taken along for the occasion.

 

Afterwards both myself and Tony Wright (the Exmoor Huntsman whose Hunting Act prosecution was overturned) who Bert had taken hunting since he was a lad, went back to the grave digger and asked for the loan of his shovel. We threw in a few spadefuls of earth with the words "The old bugger would rarely let us break through.... but he'd always let us back fill". It was our way of saying goodbye to someone who had opened many doors for a lot of people from all walks of life. He was a rogue in many ways but "good 'un" in every way, and well worthy of the respect which he still commands today even amongst those who never met him.

 

Yours in Sport and with the Fondest of Recollections - Barrie

THANK YOU FOR SHARING AND ATB

[Bosun11 537]

Thanks for the posts Barrie, facinating..... Some of the best reading on here

[top terrierman 90]

good read thanks for shareing the old stroys.

[thurso jack 3]

There was to be a book on B.Gripton and he gave all his photo albums to this person who was to write it and never saw the photos again nor was there any book forthcoming . Or so the story goes if my memory is correct

I don't know of any other book BG wrote , if there was I'd like to be enlightened .

 

Selwyn your memory is spot on .

 

I was close friends with Bert from the early 70's up until his death and particularly during the time he was terrierman to the Border Counties Otterhounds (BCOH) under the Mastership of Mr R.P. Williams who also hunted the hounds.

 

Bert was terrierman to the BCOH up until 1977 when the otter was placed on the protected list. The BCOH retained all their original hounds, but then reformed as the Border Counties Minkhounds under the Mastership of their new Huntsman John Newton. Bert's hearing had started to fail by then, terrier locators were still a relatively new invention and shunned by most of the old school, so Brian Nuttall took over the role as terrierman for a couple of seasons and then I did it for the next 17. It goes without saying that they were both difficult acts to follow and most definitely impossible to match. But they were fun times and ones spent in the very best of company.

 

In those early days, Bert drove for James Baker Shoes. Myself, my girlfriend (now wife of 30+ years) and my cousin (who was my digging partner in those days) travelled the length and breadth of the country in the "big red van" with Bert. During the summer months we'd religiously hunt otters on Wednesdays/Saturdays and Bank Holidays, and on Sundays we'd either do a terrier show or Game Fair.... or the "other things" one always did on a Sunday.

 

Together the 4 of us.... along with the likes of the late Barry Jones and others, helped man the first ever stand which the Fell & Moorland had at a game fair. That was at the CLA Game Fair Glanusk Park in 1976, which was also the year of H.R.H. Prince Charles's investiture as The Prince of Wales.

 

On that occasion, whilst doing his tour of the Game Fair in an open topped Range Rover, on seeing 4 pens of "well worked terriers" H.R.H. asked the driver to make an unscheduled stop, got out of the vehicle and spent a very relaxed 15 minutes or so chatting about the relative merits of each dog and the work which they'd done. It was pretty clear that he had more than a "passing interest" .

 

I believe the book in question is most likely Phil Drabble's "Of Pedigree Unknown" as to the best of my knowledge Bert never did get around to publishing a book, even though he referred to it on many occasions. And I saw the hand written manuscript which Selwyn referrred to, but in all honesty it would have taken a very good "ghost writer" to have turned it into a fully fledged book. Nevertheless, I'd still give my left testicle to get my hands on it now.

 

For anyone fortunate enough to own a first edition copy of Pedigree Unknown (I've just put mine down) the picture of Bert which has been posted on this thread appears on the back cover and was taken in Lizard Lane where Bert lived in a tiny "one up and one down" cottage. Also on the front cover of the book is a picture of "Old Jack" a very close associate of my late father's "hand slipping" a "rag whippet".

 

I've clear recollections from my early teens of Drabble waiting on our doorstep for my father to return home from work when he was doing his research for "Of Pedigree Unknown" and many of the references to whippets, sporting poultry and the larger sporting breeds relate to men I was fortunate enough to have grown up with. Sadly (in some ways) only the first edition contains pictures of their dogs as they found out much earlier than Bert where Drabble's real interests lay and he was told never to use any pictures of them or their dogs again.... and you just didn't argue with those men !!!

 

There was indeed a documentary interview with Bert shown on BBC in the early 's, it was conducted by Phil Drabble and entitled "The Terrierman". He did something very similar with my father maybe a decade or so earlier on "rag whippets". I still have a copy of the Bert interview, but sadly not one of my father as VCRs hadn't been invented then.

 

When Bert died he was buried at Shifnal Church. As he was laid to rest David Jones, the then David Davies Huntsman, an equally well respected terrierman and someone for whom Bert had the greatest of affection often describing as "the best huntsman you'll ever see" blew "Gone to Ground" on an old hunting horn which still sits on my mantlepiece and which I'd taken along for the occasion.

 

Afterwards both myself and Tony Wright (the Exmoor Huntsman whose Hunting Act prosecution was overturned) who Bert had taken hunting since he was a lad, went back to the grave digger and asked for the loan of his shovel. We threw in a few spadefuls of earth with the words "The old bugger would rarely let us break through.... but he'd always let us back fill". It was our way of saying goodbye to someone who had opened many doors for a lot of people from all walks of life. He was a rogue in many ways but "good 'un" in every way, and well worthy of the respect which he still commands today even amongst those who never met him.

 

Yours in Sport and with the Fondest of Recollections - Barrie

 

 

Hows things Barrie?

 

cracking read as usual, ive watched that dvd you sent me on Bert a good few times , i can only echo others in saying you should get some of these past times in print before its all lost, see you soon atb TJ

[salclalin 240]

Cracking read Barrie. But the Year of Prince Charles investiture was 1969 at Caernarfon Castle.

[the_stig 6,614]

thanks barrie - more info than i could of wished for ..and if you`ve got a spare copy of that dvd

[Cleanspade 3,322]

thanks barrie very interesting stuff.

[joedog 8]

I went on a dig with Bert in the early eighties after i done a write up in the"shooting news" as it was called then,Bert had some russell type terriersand they where exceptional fox working terriers.

[byron 1,169]

exellent reading,thanks for sharing ..

[Barrie 1,325]

Cracking read Barrie. But the Year of Prince Charles investiture was 1969 at Caernarfon Castle.

 

Sorry.... I've been out of the country, got back this evening and only just picked up on the thread again.

 

The CLA Game Fair date (1976) and location (Glanusk Park) were definitely correct. I'd got it in my head that it was also some special occasion for Prince Charles and had mistakenly assumed it was his investiture (too much acid in the 60's ???). Maybe it was simply the fact he was Prince of Wales and the Game Fair was held in Wales, but thank you for putting the record straight .

 

A couple of other things I remember about the occasion was a very young David Jones with the David Davies Hounds being presented to H.R.H. (I'm sure I've a photo somewhere) and also the fact there was much discussion that weekend regarding those "new fangled locator collars". The concensus of opinion amongst the old school being that no sane person would ever risk putting a dog to ground with a collar around their necks, due to the risk of their getting trapped !!!

 

I also remember Brian Plummer dumping a load of books on the stand for "someone to sell" and how they mysteriously disappeared. I can't remember too much about what happened to them, as there were all sorts of threats of legal action, but do get occasional flashbacks of a pair of hands as big as shovels and a rubbish skip .

 

Kindest Regards - Barrie

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

I also remember Brian Plummer dumping a load of books on the stand for "someone to sell" and how they mysteriously disappeared. I can't remember too much about what happened to them, as there were all sorts of threats of legal action, but do get occasional flashbacks of a pair of hands as big as shovels and a rubbish skip .

Kindest Regards - Barrie

 

 

@ Barrie....

[DUCKWING 302]

 

So probably not a good idea and best left to those who enjoy seeing their name up in lights

 

I guess we were lucky in as much as we hunted with the B.C.O.H. which was a melting pot of some of the finest sporting characters in our lifetime.... the likes of Bert, R.P. Williams and his family, Raymond Childs, Walter Lawrence (ladies hairdresser/boxer and one of the best pound for pound fighters I ever saw even when he was 70) who received an additional petrol allowance during the war to assist his efforts in reducing the badger poplulation, Brian Nuttall, George Meekin, Walt Aulty, David Jones, Ronald Jones.... the list is endless.

 

We really were just very fortunate

 

Y.I.S. - Barrie

 

WELL BARRIE ,

 

I MET OLD GRIPTON AT VARIOUS OCCASIONS OVER A FEW YEARS AND OFTEN HAD THE CRAIC ....... AND YEP ENJOYED EVERY MINUTE OF IT TOO !

 

AND IAM LUCKY TO CALL A FEW ON YER LIST FRIEND

 

ALL THE BEST

 

 

DUCKWING

[whin 463]

good read was to young to get about then but met alot of characters in the last twenty five years ,first book i bought was philldrabble as a twelve year old then watched angela ripon with drabble with his lurcher, glad i have a good memory , gripton was what they called him in book a hardy looking guy typical of some of the miners i grew up with and fishermen