Tyegarth History

The History of Tyegarth

Taken from an article in the Spring 1989 Boxer Quarterly written by Andrew Brace

Sheila recalls “I waited, and waited, and waited and nothing happened. I took her to the vet who gave her a caesar and told me that no way could she rear those puppies. I would have to get a foster mother. So we combed everywhere, and in those days you used to get adverts for foster mothers, until we finally tracked down a Boxer bitch in Camberley who had lost her puppies. We went in and literally walked off with this poor Boxer bitch! Amazing! She reared about eight of the pups.”
From that litter Sheila kept Tyegarth Cindy Lou who won her way up to Limit. “And remember, in those days we used to do it very properly... age classes, then Maiden, Novice, Undergraduate and all the rest of it. She did quite well for herself.”
Where did the prefix ’Tyegarth’ come from? “A veterinary friend of mine was over from Kenya, and we sat up until two o’clock in the morning over a large bottle of whisky trying to decide what these fantastic Boxers were going to be called! We lived at Tye Cottage at the time, we were near the Hog’s Back and ’Garth’ is a rolling hill. So that’s how it came about.”

That line petered out though, as Sheila explains. “Cindy Lou had two litters - the first time fifteen and she died in whelp with the second, so we lost her and her puppies. I had kept a daughter from the first litter, Tyegarth Velvet Lady, who did very well at the Open Shows. She came back from exercising one day and fell dead at my feet, so I had a post-mortem, which revealed valvular disease of the heart. Cindy Lou had died of the same thing, so I took old Muff Puff in and she had exactly the same problem but lived till around ten on various drugs. This is why I wasn’t terribly sympathetic towards breeders who had only just started and had PA, because in many ways I had to do the same thing. There was another bitch in the litter, but I just warned everyone and stopped breeding from that line and started again.”

The sire of Velvet Lady was the home bred Tyegarth Mild and Bitter, who Sheila had checked out and he was O.K. so she was able to continue with his line, but where did he come from?
"Pat Wyman had Inishowen Rico Chico who was by Justice out of a Frohlich bitch, and he had a sister, Inishowen Red Sands, whose owners could no longer keep her. Pat’s father had forbidden her to keep any more Boxers so I took her. She was my second Boxer. She was a solid red with a wry mouth, a very nicely made bitch actually, and we mated her to her brother, Rico Chico, from which came Tegarth Mild and Bitter. So it was very similar to the early Wardrobes breeding in that you had the double Justice line, and that’s really how I started.

Inishowen Rico Chico -
Sire of Mild And Bitter

He sired some good stuff for me, but you see those were the days of Bostock, the Wileys and Marian Fairbrother, and you could go to Guildford Open Show and you’d have Bostock sitting at the ring, Connie and Marian competing, Peggy and Felix battling it out ... those were proper days and you really had to work hard for a First Prize at those Open shows. And of course the major kennels usually got all the studs, so he wasn’t used that much by many show people. Les Croxford used him, the Knox Ingrams, Kay White and Pat Wyman, and Angela Kennett in her early days on a Summerdale bitch.

Competing with the ‘Big Guns’ at SKC 1959 — Tyegarth Mild And Bitter handled by Pat Wyman winning the CC. The Bitch winning her only CC is Wardrobes Astranells Imperial Lady. Judge George Jakeman

Sheila then bought Inishowen Sweet Martini, a daughter of Felcign Faro and Ch. Klesby Cherry Brandy... “By now I was well and truly hooked and had decided that I quite liked the Faro stuff with their funny little heads! So I bought Sweet Martini as I had always liked Cherry Brandy who was a stolid red bitch of very good type.”
Sweet Martini was mated to Mild and Bitter. this being yet another example of the Justice-Faro combination which proved so successful for so many Boxer breeders in their early days, and produced a bitch called Tyegarth Wot We Want. She was mated to two Felcign dogs: Ch. Tingdene Felcign Fargo (Faro ex Felcign Glitter) and Felcig’n Hot Diggotty (Ch. Merriveen Medallion ex Ch. Felcign Fabulous, full sister to Fargo).

Tyegarth Brewmaster and Tyegarth Same Again Please

Tyegarth Best of Bitter — by Mild And Bitter out of Felcign Fluer

She had a bit of ‘a sulky’ temperament; she would have days when she would go out there and show like a bomb, yet other days she didn’t want to know. She won quite well, though, and was a good sort of bitch.”
Bitterbrew also had a litter to Ch. Swanfield So Smart. in the sixties to produce Tyegarth Sprucebrew, a bitch who was to have a certain influence in years to come.
Whilst the breeding programme which eventually produced Witches Brew had been developing, Lesox Half of Mild had been mated to the newly imported American, Raineylanes Sirocco. “She must have been the fourth or fifth bitch he had, and everybody at that time was raising their hands in horror as he had produced a lot of whites,” remembers Sheila. “I liked the dog and had a smashing litter, three red and white and three brindle and white, I think.

We now come back to Witches Brew. “She was the only bitch I ever took to Picasso. I took her twice and she missed both times, so I brought her back home and mated her next time to a small monorchid dog called Tyegarth The Tatler and she had ten puppies!” laughs Sheila.

Sheila with Tyegarth The Tatler who has had a huge influence in the breed

So who was The Tatler? “I had got to know Alex Whittock by then” Sheila explains, “She had a bitch puppy who was a black faced red with very long white socks, and I really liked her... that was Palex Talk of The Town. She had a lovely little head and I had her on breeding terms. I can’t really remember why, but I guess Alex had got over-dogged and had opened quarantine kennels, or maybe I was persuasive. She was, of course, one of the few legal children of Gremlin Step Forward and her dam was by Knockout. At that time Jean Grant had come over from Canada with Gaymitz Jolly Rodger and was staying with Alex. Talk of The Town was mated to Jolly Rodger when Jean was staying there and she missed. By this time Jean had moved on to stay with relations in Scotland, decided she couldn’t stand it and so was going back to Canada with Jolly Rodger. Talk of The Town came in season just a week before Jean was due to leave. I was working, the dog was in Scotland, so how on earth was I going to get them mated? Anyhow, Jean eventually agreed to a return service after a little argument, provided I got the bitch to Scotland before she left. Janice Mair was at a show at Kempton Racecourse, having flown down. She took Talk of The Town back with her, took her over to Jolly Rodger, got her mated and flew her back to me ... and I hardly knew Janice at all, but people did things like that in those days.

The litter produced four bitches and a minute dog who was hairless and bottle reared! Then there was a bit of an argument with Alex because by the time I had got him to a reasonable size, she had decided that she wanted him. Anyhow, I held on to this little monorchid dog who was a real runty puppy, yet he never sired a monorchid. He was a nice dog, a very well balanced dog but small, yet he didn’t look feminine. He was a very masculine little dog. When you think that he was hardly used, he did have quite a remarkable influence. A few breeders used him, but I used him extensively. Bill Law used him on a Gremlin-sired bitch to produce Biloran Mrs. Thingummy who is behind many of their winners. He was used by Marian Fairbrother which produced the unfortunate Gremlin Libretto who did so much for the Marikarlos kennel in Scandinavia. Valerie Tripe used him to get Yooneek Regency Stripe who got a Reserve ticket and Ivor Ward-Davies also used him.”
A Tatler daughter was taken to Ch. Seefeld Shadowfax and produced Seefeld Hawkbit Copper Beech, the sire of Ch. Seefeld Coral Gem and others including Seefeld Copper Bronze, the sire of the Seefeld Champion, Copy Cat.
For a while Sheila had not really bothered showing Boxers that determinedly, and had ventured into Great Danes, Bostons and Bulldogs. “I fancied Danes and the first male I kept I made up, so that wasn’t much of a challenge:’ smiles Sheila, “and I wanted to prove that you could breed a sound Bulldog and bred Jacob - who won Groups galore - and the Bostons also did well but they tended to kill each other in kennels. We also had Pugs .., a nice breed.”

By the mid seventies Sheila had Tatler stock to put in the ring and the Tyegarths began to really make their mark. In 1976 John Hambleton gave Tyegarth My Guinness a Limit class. He was by Tatler out of the Bitterbrew daughter by Ch. Swanfield So Smart, Tyegarth Sprucebrew.
Mated to another Bitterbrew daughter Witches Brew, Tatler produced Tyegarth Old Fashioned of whom more will be heard later.

Tyegarth Old Fashioned
the most famous dam in the UK — Probably!

Sheila had bought a bitch from the WardDavies’, Winuwuk Nightcap, who was by Back In Town out of a Catch Me Red granddaughter. Nightcap mated to Tatler produced Tyegarth Cossack who in 1977 won a Reserve ticket under Ronnie Owen.
Sheila always advertised the fact that Tatler was a monorchid and never attempted to hide the fact, hence her surprise when one of his daughters found her way to Scandinavia - complete with veterinary documentation to certify her sire’s entirety!

Ch Tyegarth Famous Grouse

As was said earlier, Witches Brew who had missed to Picasso was mated to Tatler and produced Tyegarth Old Fashioned. She was mated to the Tatler son, My Guinness, to produce Tyegarth Remy Martin who was “a nice bitch who won well” and of course from a half-brother to half-sister mating on Tatler. Also in that litter was Tyegarth Antiquary who, when mated to Cossack (a Tatler son) produced the very closely bred Tyegarth Harvey Wallbanger who won a Reserve CC for the Knox Ingrams. Old Fashioned, however, was to make her name when mated to Ch. Gremlin Summer Storm, for in that litter was Tyegarth Famous Grouse. Born in February 1978, Grouse won his first Reserve ticket at 8 months of age under Jeanne Tunstill at the London & Home Counties Show of the same year and gained his Junior Warrant the following week.

Not surprisingly Sheila repeated the mating and the Storm/Old Fashioned combination was responsible for Famous Grouse, Glenmorangie, Glendronach and Glenmoray.
Grouse won his first CC & B.O.B. in 1979 under Arthur Butters and the following year saw his young brother, Glenmorangie (now in the ownership of Jenny Townshend as Sheila did not want two full brothers of similar age) leap into the limelight at Crufts where he won his first CC & B.O.B. beating Grouse into the Reserve CC position.
There was only six months between them so one had to go, and I chose to keep Grouse - I would always have taken Grouse in preference to Glen, purely on expression.

Ch Tyegarth Glenmorangie of Jenroy winning BOB at Crufts in 1980 from Peter Perrett. Bitch CC is Ch. Winuwuk Good Golly handled by Ivor ward-Davies who gave Grouse the Dog CC at Crufts in 1981.

Glen had more size, more substance and a better forechest than Grouse but Grouse had a better front, if narrower than the ideal, and Grouse had that expression and balance which means a lot to me.’. They also produced quite differently. Grouse passed on his expression whereas I think Glen tends to throw a slightly harder expression ... going back to Famous Footsteps type of head, really. This is one of the reasons why I can’t accept that Storm is by anyone other than Footsteps. Glen tends to produce Footsteps type puppies - they have a bit more scope and greater stride than Grouse puppies and I think if breeders really thought about it, rather than just grabbing on to rumours, they would realise that Footsteps is behind Storm. You see, this story about Back in Town being behind Storm is ridiculous in my opinion. I used Back in Town five times and, although such a good producer; he never produced anything to my line.

Now if Back in Town was behind Storm, surely when I used him it would have clicked? Marian had a reason to use Step Forward and falsify the pedigree, but she had no reason to use Grand Slam ... he wasn’t even a great dog! Why should she use a dog who wasn’t a great dog when she could use its father? Step Forward had big bird-of-prey eyes, large, round and light. and he was almost bucket-headed, but he was very much a stallion. I saw him at a South Western show and resolved to use him, then Marian went off to Italy and that was that. I feel that the Gremlins have had a lot of bad press, and that British stock in general has been rubbished as a result.

Grouse at nine years

I miss Marian and the Gremlins enormously as whenever I bred myself into a corner, I could always shoot down west and find a good producing dog.
Furthermore, whilst on the subject of rumours and having witnessed with amazement the savaging of the Gremlin stock by certain people once the owner had died, I would like to put paid to the rumours I am told are now circulating about Grouse. I would like to have it put on record while I am still around that Grouse definitely died on March 8th 1988 and that I have never falsely signed a blue form stating Grouse to have mated a bitch - I have enough problems ’keeping records as it is. without complicating matters with deceptions.
Presumably these stories arose because one or two owners did not always see the tie - Grouse always used up a lot of time and energy greeting the owners before he even noticed the bride. Henceforth as he got older, Juliet sometimes found it less hassle to take the bitch away from the owner and get her mated without any distractions. With hindsight, and human nature being what it is, this was probably rather silly of us.”

Grouse at five years

1980 saw both Grouse and Glenmorangie take their titles. Grouse’s first litter had produced Glorious Twelfth of Redfyre and she won her first CC in 1980, beating into Reserve Tyegarth Wee Dram, another Grouse daughter (out of Tyegarth Auld Lang Syne, a daughter of My Guinness and Tatler’s sister, Toast Of The Town).
1981 saw Grouse’s most famous son take his first ticket, Ch. Faerdorn Pheasant Plucker. Another Grouse CC winner emerged in Steynmere Midnight Major, Grouse himself won 6 more CCs, Glenmorangie added another ticket, Wee Dram took her title whilst the Grouse sisters Glendronach and Glenmoray, and the Wee Dram sister Auchentoshan, all won their Stud Book numbers. Tatler’s influence was also being felt through the Reserve CC winning Bilorans, The Artful Dodger and Miss Nancy (later to become a Champion) who were out of a Tatler daughter.
Glenmoray had been mated to Tyegarth Salignac, bred the same way as Cossack (Tatler to Winuwuk Nightcap). That produced the Hardings’ Tyegarth Mickey Finn who won a Reserve CC in 1982 as did Chellowside Classic Touch (Grouse ex Ch. Dusky Damsel of Chellowside), Sunhawk Amber Fern (Grouse ex Ebony Eyes of Winuwuk), Tudora Anniversary Rose (Grouse ex a daughter of Ch. Seefeld Shadowfax and Ch. Seefeld Mustard Seed).

That year saw Pheasant Plucker take 13 more CCs. The Grouse daughter Ch. Socotras Royal Game took her first CC as did Tyegarth Angostura (a daughter of Tyegarth Russchian who was by Cossack out of Remy Martin, the Guinness/Old Fashioned bitch). Tyegarth Hundred Pipers won a CC for Pam Broughton. She was by the Grouse son, Steynmere Midnight Major, out of Tyegarth Prohibition - a daughter of Cossack and a Tatler bitch. Also in 1982 Ch. Wee Dram added to her tally of CCs..

She was to prove his most successful and consistent producing bride. Of Claret, Sheila says “She was a very good producing bitch, a solid brindle. She still comes back to board - mind you, she’s now as fat as a tank! She had, five litters to Grouse. She never noticed having her puppies, she used to turn them out like shelling peas and put the fat on her own back but also on her puppies.
You could still be breeding from her and she probably wouldn’t notice. Some bitches you have one litter from and that’s it, others go on. She was a smashing bitch to breed from. The interesting thing was that she produced two sort of clones ... there were the Brain Duster and Kiwi type where the heads go on improving but as puppies they are very plain, very well modelled in a way but lacking break; and then there was the Gin ’n’ Cin, Koala Koola, Kiri type that are very much Tatler and more broken... a very Boxery head from the puppy stage.”

Tyegarth Gin ‘N’ Cin as a baby
a very ‘Boxery’ head at the puppy stage

As a model for test mating for P.A. clearance, Grouse was mated to several of his daughters, however Ch. Tyegarth Double Whiskey of Tyzack was the result of an unintentionally incestuous liaison ........ Grouse had helped himself to Auchentoshan, Wee Dram’s sister, the result being the well-named Double Whiskey! She won 3 CCs in 1983.

Auchentoshan’s daughter —
Ch Tyegarth Double Whisky of Tyzack

Tyegarth Double Scotch, 5 RCCs

In Sheila’s opinion “Auchentoshan was a better bitch than Wee Dram, but she had that litter quite young and never really came back. She went in the ring again and did quite well, but possibly never reached her full potential.”
That year 5 Reserves were won by Tyegarth Double Scotch, Mickey Finn added another, whilst Faerdorn Tickle My Fancy and Glorious Encore of Redfyre were added to the list of Reserve CC winning Grouselets.

By the mid-eighties, Grouse was being line-bred to quite regularly. Frank Unsworth took his Grouse daughter, Scrumpy, to the Grouse son, Pheasant Plucker, and produced Ch. Ryecroft the Jazz Singer who won his first ticket in 1984.
Ch. Tinkers Trade of Harmaur (by Grouse) won her first two tickets, whilst the Tyegarth Champions Gin ‘n’ Cin and Brain Duster both won two tickets apiece. Glenmorangie was also getting well used. His daughter, Ch. Bucksteps Bit O’Bother at Jenroy won her first CC in ’84 and another daughter, Tantalizer of Jenroy, won her first Reserve ticket. Cossack sired another CC winner of ’84, Rodalana Baby Jane. The consistent winner, Ch. Sheffordian John Joe, won his title - another Grouse Champion - whilst John Joe’s sister became the dam of Ch. Sheffordian Ruby Tuesday of Norwatch.

Tyegarth Fog Cutter, RCC

1985 saw the big winning Ch. Jenroy Pop My Cork to Walkon take his first Reserve tickets. He was from a father-daughter mating on Glenmorangie.
Ch, Tyegarth Blue Kiwi (one of many from the Grouse/Little Claret combination) won his title whilst other Grouse CC winners that year included Glenfall the Chatelaine, Ch. Nowatch Slightly Sozzled, Ch. Brain Duster and Ch. Gin ‘n’ Cin. Reserve ticket winners by Grouse that year were Santonoaks Burlington Bertie and Ch. Slightly Sloshed of Sunhawk at Walkon. Tyegarth Fog Cutter picked up a Reserve ticket too. He was by Ch. Summer Shadow of Gremlin out of Angostura.

Janeils She’s A Dish was a Reserve CC winner, a daughter of Tyegarth Double Century (Grouse/Little Claret). Pensing Scotch Mist, sired by Double Scotch, also won 2 Reserve tickets.
Kiwi added to his list of CCs in 1986. Sunhawk Clatter won I CC and 2 Reserve CCs with limited showing. He was by Tyegarth The Real McCoy (Grouse x Tyegarth Glendu, a daughter of a Grouse sister) out of a Grouse daughter. Tyegarth Angus Doddy (Pheasant Plucker ex Auchentoshan) won a Reserve CC that year as did Eriska School For Scandal (by Grouse out of a bitch who went back to Tatler). Janbeau Puddle Jumper won her first Reserve ticket. She was by Glenmorangie out of a Grouse daughter, a mating which has proved quite popular. The Glenmorangie daughter Katiecroft Samantha won a Reserve ticket whereas the Grouse bitch, Carinya Theme For a Dream won three.

Pam Broughton’s first Champion, Glenfall the Gladiator, was bred out of Glenfall Amber Spirit, a daughter of Grouse and Tyegarth Hundred Pipers. He gained his title in 1987 as did the precocious young Ch. Norwatch Sunhawk Raffles (Grouse ex his own grand-daughter). Blue Kiwi had a good year, winning five more CCs and the Grouse daughter, Ch. Tirkane Chequers took her first CC as did the Glenmorangie daughter, Ch. Walkon Smash’d Again. Ch. Santonoaks Slick Sammy won his first ticket. He was by the Grouse son, Kiwi, out of a Grouse daughter. Another Kiwi child, Vinrojo Highland Image of Steynmere also picked up a Reserve ticket. Tyegarth Boski (Grouse ex Brain Duster) won his Stud Book Number before being exported to the Marikarlos kennel in Sweden. Other future stars who picked up their first green, cards in 1987 included Ch. Blupines Forest Flame (by Grouse), Sunhawk Norwatch Gamble (out of Tyegarth Highland Mist of Sunhawk, a Fog Cutter/Glenkinchie daughter), Norwatch Sunhawk Munroe and Springbeck Paws For Thought (both by Grouse).

Glenfall Amber Spirit —
By Grouse ex Hundred Pipers and dam of Ch. Glenfall The Gladiator

The Trinaka kennel found success by using Tyegarth lines. Their Whistle And Flute at Trinaka was by Ch. Marbelton Dressed to Kill out of Tyegarth Flower Power, yet another Grouse/Little Claret offspring. When they used Flute on Tyegarth Diplomacy (which they also had on breeding terms) who was a Glenmoray daughter, they produced Ch. On Your Toes of Trinaka whose breeder is, on paper, Sheila Cartrwight though in fairness to Sheila she says “I feel quite guilty about that as Stan really bred him.”
Grouse and Glenmorangie’s influence was profoundly there in the crop of 1988 new Champions. They included Ch. Blupines Forest Fern (by Grouse), Ch. Bailiga Wennington Beck (a grandson of both Grouse and Glenmorangie, his litter brother Rigoletto already having been made up), Ch. Revluc Runemead (by Rigoletto out of a Grouse grand-daughter), Ch. On Your Toes of Trinaka (by a Grouse grandson out of a Grouse niece), Ch. Tirkane Chequers (by Grouse), Ch. Santonoaks Slick Sammy (by a Grouse son out of a Grouse daughter), Ch.Walkon Smash’d Again (by Glenmorangie out of a Grouse daughter) Ch. Redfyre Prima Donna (by a Grouse son out of a Grouse grand-daughter) and the dual Reserve Group winning Ch. Bitza Shout and Roar (by a Grouse son out of Tyegarth Hot Hooch - by Jack Daniels of Tyegarth, a Grouse son, out of Tyegarth Sunset Strip, a Glenkinchie daughter).

Then came the arrival at Tyegarth of the imported Wardo von Dommeldal. ’’We had gone over to a Dutch Boxer Club show and saw a really lovely young dog,” Sheila explains. “I was with the Broughtons and we both asked if they would sell him. Shirley Butters subsequently tried to buy him too. He had the same sort of balance that Grouse had, but he wasn’t for sale, and jokingly I said if I couldn’t have the son, I’d take the father. I hadn’t gone with the intention of buying anything, and Wardo - the sire of this young dog - had been sent away to do his Schutzhund training in Germany.
He's also H.D. negative which was useful, and I was offered the dog. I had always liked him, but I asked Jan Vermulen - his owner - if I could get around to see some litters by him before I committed myself and with every litter I saw he had upgraded on the bitch.

The Wardo son —
The Jacobite of Tyegarth