Opinions on the Norfolk lurcher?

[two crows 3,342]

3 minutes ago, TOMO said:

been caught on there myself a few years back.........always wanted to to poach all the big name estates in my youth.....never got round to doing them all...

when I was at bircham newton in the seventys  we used to get about £4 quid a week spending money so I used to go snairing all round there and get 50 pence for a rabbit and used to do sandringham on occasion with the odd bird with the catty. 

[two crows 3,342]

26 minutes ago, TOMO said:

you know though ...I read them tales of the old gamkeepers books....and a few other ones older......and they all complained about how tuff it was etc.....but then when you looked at what they got.....a house clothing allowance ...dog food...a few ton of coal a year...tips from the guns ....some of them especialy the head keepers often got a man and a poney and trap to take them round the estate on there rounds....one I read about even had a gardener tending to his vedge plot........oh and not to mention all the free game to eat

then you got the poor b*****d working down the pit when they were all private.....20-30 years of that if they were lucky....then dying of lung diseases if a cave in didn't get them first..

think I know wich I prefer

 

my granddad was a driver in the royal horse artillery during the boar war, he had the kings medal with four bars, when he left the army he went to work at whitwell pit, and died of lung disease, and I often wondered why the duke and duches  of Portland paid for a London specialist, but they would of owned the pit at the time, I don't know if this was normal, or if he did anything else for them as his knowledge of horses was very good, (in his obituary it says they kindly paid for the specialist) when I was single handed on the partridge shoot I used to get between 6 and 7 grand a year in tips. I do think the head keepers were the exception though in olden times.

Edited March 27, 2019 by two crows

[TOMO 26,064]

I grew up not far from whitwell........and lost a dog there back in the 80's went over the quarry edge chasing a rabbit....I was gutted...

whitwell not far from Welbeck estate ..I did 6 month there on a yts working with the keepers....84 that was just as the strike ended

[tatsblisters 9,498]

Just now, TOMO said:

I grew up not far from whitwell........and lost a dog there back in the 80's went over the quarry edge chasing a rabbit....I was gutted...

whitwell not far from Welbeck estate ..I did 6 month there on a yts working with the keepers....84 that was just as the strike ended

Heard some right horror story's about the keepers on their.lol

[two crows 3,342]

6 minutes ago, TOMO said:

I grew up not far from whitwell........and lost a dog there back in the 80's went over the quarry edge chasing a rabbit....I was gutted...

whitwell not far from Welbeck estate ..I did 6 month there on a yts working with the keepers....84 that was just as the strike ended

 

6 minutes ago, TOMO said:

I grew up not far from whitwell........and lost a dog there back in the 80's went over the quarry edge chasing a rabbit....I was gutted...

whitwell not far from Welbeck estate ..I did 6 month there on a yts working with the keepers....84 that was just as the strike ended

you mentioned the welbeck bit before I went on there in the dark once or twice, lol. (so did I tats but the bloke I heard about was a dog kicker so no sympathy)

Edited March 27, 2019 by two crows

[tatsblisters 9,498]

Just now, two crows said:

 

you mentioned the welbeck bit before I went on there in the dark once or twice, lol.

Once did a recky on their in the day with some mates to come back to peg it when the night was right and the keeper and a young lad came to us we convinced them we had come to look at the heronry as keen bird watchers that would have been about 83.

[TOMO 26,064]

pete betts was the head keeper then tats.....he hated dog lads...mind I think Welbeck being surrounded by pit villages and poaching miners had something to do with it...funny enough the two underkeeps I was working with had poached it as young lads....they told me never tell pete.....he was head keeper at a young age early 30's....

he died about 10 years ago from cancer I think....one of the lads on moochers told me...dingo dancer from worksop...

but your right tats ...Welbeck was very hot for anybody chancing there arm...

[Bearfoot 1,477]

Down pit 

Edited March 27, 2019 by Bearfoot

[shaaark 10,708]

6 hours ago, two crows said:

they don't look a very type'y bunch, the reason the men look so miserable is because it was a shit job for shit money like most countryside jobs at the time.

Was thinking myself that those dogs don't look of any type. Was there really a 'type' as such back then? It's only been just over a hundred years that dogs have been shown, and bred for showing. If a dog did a job well, regardless of what it was, it was bred from.

What I mean as well, is the fact that all the many pics you see of 'norfolk' lurchers, hardly any of them look that similar?

Edited March 27, 2019 by shaaark

[sandymere 8,263]

Reckon you're likely right, a lurcher was just a lurcher and if decent likely bred from no matter the looks. The idea of a Norfolk lurcher is just a romanticised idea. Even greyhounds were a mixed bunch ranging from whippet to deerhound sized being referred to as greyhounds. 

 

[TOMO 26,064]

6 minutes ago, sandymere said:

Reckon you're likely right, a lurcher was just a lurcher and if decent likely bred from no matter the looks. The idea of a Norfolk lurcher is just a romanticised idea. Even greyhounds were a mixed bunch ranging from whippet to deerhound sized being referred to as greyhounds. 

 

ye can still get greyhounds like that...........in spain....

[shaaark 10,708]

12 minutes ago, sandymere said:

Reckon you're likely right, a lurcher was just a lurcher and if decent likely bred from no matter the looks. The idea of a Norfolk lurcher is just a romanticised idea. Even greyhounds were a mixed bunch ranging from whippet to deerhound sized being referred to as greyhounds. 

 

Yeah, that was exactly my thinking. And I've seen pics of 'collies' from 80/90 years ago that look very little like todays collies

[two crows 3,342]

3 hours ago, shaaark said:

Yeah, that was exactly my thinking. And I've seen pics of 'collies' from 80/90 years ago that look very little like todays collies

don't forget people did not move about much until very recently rely, so every area had there own type of everything, from canaries to horses, and dogs no different, when I took a bitch about ten miles to be mated, we walked it there and back in the seventy's, the border collie we know today is a modern dog rely.

[billhardy 2,342]

Modern collie dogs are a totally different type of maybey fifty yrs ago there his still ta be found good old sorts ,but yas won't find em on tilling sheep farmers places.atb bill

[shaaark 10,708]

17 minutes ago, two crows said:

don't forget people did not move about much until very recently rely, so every area had there own type of everything, from canaries to horses, and dogs no different, when I took a bitch about ten miles to be mated, we walked it there and back in the seventy's, the border collie we know today is a modern dog rely.

Yeah that's what I mean. As far as I can see, there were at least half a dozen 'norfolk' type lurchers.

I know about walking everywhere in the 70's lol