Bert Gripton.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Good memories are two a penny I'm afraid and the way it should be I guess but I just wish some of the truth was allowed to surface to balance the legend in modern day standards.He did deal in dogs, he didn' have a line of his own .Neither of which are derrogetory ,just the truth .

[dillydog 8,463]

Take that back you bitch ???

[bird 9,868]

1 hour ago, 5 feet down said:

Legends are normally made by men that know no better! I’ve been disappointed every legend I’ve met

fair point  mate, i not a terrier man, but have been invited on few digs, and seen few dogs working,  some spot on , and some not as good like in any working dog type most were black  dogs. the thing ive found regards Bert  watching that old vid, and i did meet him as a old man, when he was ill. Is that he tried to put terries  out to the public , that they were doing valuable pest control, to the farming community .and he knew him self it was getting a up hill battle even back  in the 70-80s  , people  didnt really like it. so ok if his dogs were not  top notch , and he bought and sold pups  from not a true line of dogs he kept , at least  he did try to keep terrier work alive and legal  , we  owe him that much if nothing else .

[Barrie 1,325]

13 hours ago, dillydog said:

 

Dilly

Thanks for posting that old photo..... it was taken at the end of a day's otterhunting with the B.C.O.H. on our annual trip to Pembroke and Carmarthen where we'd all take a week's holiday to hunt the P.C.O.H. waters. From left to right they are Chris, my cousin Bo (my original digging partner) and Bert (I was behind the camera), that old Mini Countryman (LEA 50P) covered some hunting miles in its time. Sadly Chris is the only person in that photo alive today and it's fair to say she's weathered a lot better than I have (but then she's had a pretty easy life).

I said I thought it was taken in 1976, but looking at those terriers I'm certain it was 1977. The black bitch is Judy (full sister to Poker) which Glynn posted some photos and pedigree of in a previous thread and the red dog is Toby. Both were of very similar lines, Judy was born 14/10/1975, Toby 26/3/1976 and the otter was taken off the quarry list at the end of 1977, so I'm sure it would have been during our last season.

The spade stuck in the ground bought back old memories too, we affectionately knew them as "tea spoons". At that time there was a lot of genuine army surplus material about and those were the old Landrover spades issued by the Army, we'd shorten the shaft and pop on a handle so they'd fit inside a Barbour for when we didn't want to be noticed . I used call at a large army surplus dump at Alrewas on the A38 (I suspect you know it as well as I did) and I could buy a bundle of 6 spades all wired together for 10 old shillings (50p). You can't get bargains like that any more

Yours in Sport - Barrie

Edited December 30, 2017 by Barrie

[Rabbit Hunter 6,613]

Keep these posts coming Barrie, really make good historical reading and a refreshing change on this site. Thanks.

Would Judy be the same bitch Didriksen owned and mentions in his first book? 

[Barrie 1,325]

3 hours ago, Rabbit Hunter said:

Keep these posts coming Barrie, really make good historical reading and a refreshing change on this site. Thanks.

Would Judy be the same bitch Didriksen owned and mentions in his first book? 

Hi Rabbit

No that would be a different bitch..... I was fortunate enough to have had Judy from 8 weeks up until she died.

If she had a vice at all, it was that on occasions she could be a little bit silly on a fox and mistakenly thought she was a match for them all.

But with anything else she was very sensible and an absolute pleasure to take out. I had many good years of enjoyment with her, at a time when terrier locators were either none existent, or so "new fangled" and unreliable that they were still pretty much shunned. I guess to some extent this also tended to shape our expectations and what we tended looked for in a dog.

At times she could be a rough little bugger, but I don't think I can ever recollect her having killed a single cub of any kind and it would be amusing to see her with her tail tucked under her belly, gently carry them out. I'm sure plenty of others will have seen exactly the same sort of thing.... I guess it's a combination of the maternal instincts kicking in and the fact that the bitch has enough common sense to know they don't pose any sort of threat.    

Yours in Sport - Barrie   

[Flacko 1,742]

Good picture that Barrie atb Flacko 

[Guest vin]

Great thread chaps.

[TOMO 26,052]

On 12/29/2017 at 19:42, nick703 said:

Did you no the twins Barrie ? ( close friends of Bert), they've got some cracking old photos of him an his terriers.

i knew the twins from mansfield,,,,my home town,,,,hunted with them a few times...they allways spoke very highly of bert....its been a long time since i seen either.....there the tightest lads ive ever known.....

one day i saw there 4x4 parked up on the a60....harlow wood area.....i pulled up next to it....wrote on some paper....LACS..we are watching you and stuck it under the wippers ....

 

[neil cooney 10,416]

They're on here Tomo, so you're now f****d .

[Flacko 1,742]

Tighter than Vin ? atb Flacko 

[Billy Bowden 12]

Met old Bert once on a bus with his terriers and a bag full of deaduns!

[Lutra Lutra 611]

On 29/12/2017 at 18:31, Barrie said:

As is all too often the case, opinions are frequently trotted out on these forums as if they were fact. And whilst I’ve no desire to “pee on anyone’s parade”, or to speak ill of the dead, it’s important that when this happens those who have actual first-hand knowledge and are still fortunate enough to be able to still tell the tale, should at the very least attempt to put the record straight. Otherwise history will be rewritten…. and sadly in some instances rewritten very badly.

I was fortunate enough to be a close friend of Bert’s from the early 1970’s up until his death in June 1995. Along with my late cousin “Bo” and my then girlfriend Chris, we travelled the length and breadth of the country in Bert’s big red (James Baker) van. We’d hunt otters in the summer, foxes in the winter, dig most Sundays (summer and winter), drive woods for keepers with a few hounds Bert used to keep for that purpose and fit in the occasional terrier show too. The three of us were with Bert when he first met the American gentleman in the video, Buddy Gayer (sp), it was at the Pennine Hunt Terrier Show and for some strange reason I remember it as clear as if it was yesterday.

With regards to the Terrier Man video, that program was first aired on BBC2 29th January 1982 and I still have the original VHS tape copy here. Drabble did a similar but much shorter interview with my late father on “rag whippets” in 1979.

I’ve just put down my first edition copies of Drabble’s Pedigree Unknown published 1964 (I’d be 19 at that time) and The Black Country published 1952. I’m fiercely proud of the fact that I was born and brought up in the Black Country and was fortunate enough to grow up alongside and spend time in the company of those very special Black Country men who because of their own unique set of talents featured in both. I would commend both as excellent reading.

I have several memories during my mid-teens, of returning home during school holidays with ferrets and nets to find Phil Drabble waiting at my parent’s home for my father to return from work, while he was researching and gathering material for Pedigree Unknown. I also recollect explaining to him on the one occasion how we would take the top and bottom out of a small baked bean tin, fit a lady’s nylon stocking onto the can with elastic bands, tie a knot in the bottom and push the tins into the rat’s holes before we bolted them with our ferrets. As the rats hit the nets, you simply held the knot, gave the stocking a twist and you finished up with a “sausage of live rats”…. It was something he seemed very unfamiliar with!

Rightly or wrongly, following the publication of Pedigree Unknown, my father and his close circle of friends formed an unfavourable opinion of Phil Drabble as a result of an article in the Field magazine (they were difficult – but straight talking men to say the least !) and he was advised against using any photos of their dogs in future. He respected their wishes, they only appeared in that first edition, but for anyone who has a first edition, I still have that original set of weighing scales here today.

Whether Phil was a friend or otherwise to dog men in general, well we are all entitled to our opinions on that. Personally I always found him to be a perfect gentleman, but I would make two further points. Firstly compare a copy of the original Pedigree Unknown and compare it to subsequent versions. As public opinions change you may also notice a change in content and emphasis. For me and the things I hold dearest, the more recent versions are of little interest, yet I never tire of reading the original.

Secondly, I was more than a little active on a variety of fronts at the time there were moves afoot to protect the badger and remove it from the quarry list. Phil was pretty high profile TV Naturalist at that time and very active on the badger protection front. I well remember being sat in front of the TV when he quoted some staggeringly low figures for the number of active breeding setts in the country…. yet they bore very little resemblance to the permission I had, let alone the country as a whole.

To conclude, there is one more myth which keeps getting trotted out on this forum which I’d like to dispel and it relates to the photo of Bert, holding his terrier Thatch, with an otter pad in hand. It has been suggested on several occasions that it is the pad of the last legally killed otter and that’s certainly NOT the case at all. I was lucky enough to be there on that day and the pad was taken from a 21lb dog otter caught by the Border Counties Otterhounds on the River Seven at Llandinam. Both Thatch and Bert worked their hearts out that day, in difficult circumstances and in front of a huge field. Bert was presented with that pad by the late great R.P Williams Master/Huntsman BCOH in appreciation of their contribution to the day’s hunting. The BCOH put in many days hunting after that and it was definitely not the last otter they caught.

For those with a particular interest in Bert, who as Neil so rightly points out “earned his reputation at the coal face” rather than in some of the other less honourable, or worthy ways so commonplace today. There are a number of previous threads including….. http://www.thehuntinglife.com/forums/topic/120571-bert-gripton/

Yours in Sport (And With Apologies for Banging On) - Barrie

Hello Barrie, hoping you are keeping just fine. I read your short article regarding your experiences and the wonderful friendship you had with (Bert Gripton) and enjoyed reading your article due to the true facts that existed at the time concerning your friendship with Bert. My brother and myself also experienced some wonderful times with Bert and of course the knowledge he had not just of the quarry of which he hunted, but also regarding not just the working Terrier, but many other breeds of dogs also. His knowledge was a somewhat bottomless pit and I can remember him on one occasion when I stopped at his cottage in Shropshire, he regaled myself with a colourful account of his certain subordinates within the Terrier world. "Of course I can only speak of our own experiences, however, he was a fount of Knowledge on other subjects also. He did mention yourself Barrie on many occasions.The sad fact of life was that many people had milked him for whatever, perhaps his knowledge, or to further their own causes due to many who have their own hidden agendas unfortunately. He was a great man and a great ambassador to many Field sports, but of course to Terriers and Terrier work.

[Lutra Lutra 611]

On 01/01/2018 at 14:36, TOMO said:

i knew the twins from mansfield,,,,my home town,,,,hunted with them a few times...they allways spoke very highly of bert....its been a long time since i seen either.....there the tightest lads ive ever known.....

one day i saw there 4x4 parked up on the a60....harlow wood area.....i pulled up next to it....wrote on some paper....LACS..we are watching you and stuck it under the wippers ....

 

Hello Tomo, you old rascal! Didn't we have some great times, especially Ferreting? I can remember you and DAVID going down to your parents house in Suffolk and David had those excellent working Polecat Ferrets. I think you both accounted for 50 or 60 Rabbits on that particular occasion; very good for 2 people! David remembers the day with great fondness and the hospitality from your parents. Wonderful food and Whisky. However, David was hospitalised in (2007), spending 8 months in hospital. "He told myself how he survived the ordeal of which consisted of 3 important factors. Thankfully meeting the great and renowned Professor who treated him, praying fervently, but above everything else, knowing that there and awaiting his arrival was the 3 Terriers back at home. "The hospital staff even let myself take (Topsy), one of his dogs to see him in hospital. Wonderful ! However, onto a somewhat brighter note. So it was you old Buzzard who put the L.A.C.S. piece of paper under the wipers? Take care my friend and thanks for the memories......

                                                                                                        Regards.........

P.S. You've always been one for playing tricks upon people. Can you remember the days in Grassington Tomo?

Edited January 7, 2018 by Lutra Lutra
missed out word.

[TOMO 26,052]

9 hours ago, Lutra Lutra said:

Hello Tomo, you old rascal! Didn't we have some great times, especially Ferreting? I can remember you and DAVID going down to your parents house in Suffolk and David had those excellent working Polecat Ferrets. I think you both accounted for 50 or 60 Rabbits on that particular occasion; very good for 2 people! David remembers the day with great fondness and the hospitality from your parents. Wonderful food and Whisky. However, David was hospitalised in (2007), spending 8 months in hospital. "He told myself how he survived the ordeal of which consisted of 3 important factors. Thankfully meeting the great and renowned Professor who treated him, praying fervently, but above everything else, knowing that there and awaiting his arrival was the 3 Terriers back at home. "The hospital staff even let myself take (Topsy), one of his dogs to see him in hospital. Wonderful ! However, onto a somewhat brighter note. So it was you old Buzzard who put the L.A.C.S. piece of paper under the wipers? Take care my friend and thanks for the memories......

                                                                                                        Regards.........

P.S. You've always been one for playing tricks upon people. Can you remember the days in Grassington Tomo?

yeh great times mate.....i remember at my mum and dads thinking you two must have hollow legs,,,,never seen such wiry fellas eat so much....

mind i was glad your bro dug that 5 foot hole in pure sand.....bloody dangerouse