THIS IS FINDON — created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

Trouble With The Neighbours

Copyright Valerie Martin 1996

Text first published in the West Sussex Gazette on 7th November, l996.

At the beginning of the twentieth century there were three training stables in Findon for educating horses to jump "over the sticks". These were at Downs House in Stable Lane, the Nepcote Lodge Stables in Steep Lane and The Vale south of the village, just off the main road to Worthing. Horses' reputations are made and lost with great rapidity and the same applies to that of men.

I have found that Findon was at the centre of a High Court Justice Case almost one hundred years ago when two local racehorse trainers were in dispute over usage of the Gallops. The case was known as "Gore and Douglas v. Gully". Tempers became frayed.

To set the idyllic country scene, three Findon family names are paramount —

Robert George Gore, an Irishman and always known as "Bob" was born in 1859 in Swords, County Dublin. His father (another Robert Gore) had been a Resident Magistrate and lived in the Ward Union country and hunted with that pack — and with the Meath.  Therefore, the love of horses was born into our Findon racehorse trainer, Bob Gore. 

A family friend, Mr. W. Jameson, owner of many jumpers, who won the National with Comeaway, afforded the young aspirant the opportunities to practise the mysteries of schooling horses. 

There was talk of Bob entering the Army and he read for his examination.  But when he went up, one or two of the jumps were too high for him and he was unable to stay the course.   He gratified his military ardour by obtaining a commission in the Militia — but this only lasted for five years.  

Bob had a successful and varied career as a gentleman rider in Germany, Austria, Russia and Denmark.  He came to England in the 1880s and was attached to William Murland as his assistant trainer and also as an amateur rider.  When the five-bedroom Downs House in Findon came on the market in 1899, Bob was interested. 

He arrived in Findon with a small string of a dozen horses, mostly from Ireland, for training. In 1901 he was still single and living in Findon.   At some point he married Ida Mary Bridger (born 27th February 1862 at New Shoreham), daughter of William Bridger of Holmbush House from nearby Ashington.  They were married at Ashington Church.

Gully on the other hand, had previously ran a training establishment at Epsom but at the beginning of the century he also came to Findon to train horses on the springy turf of the Downs. The newcomer’s training yard was at Nepcote Lodge Stables in Steep Lane, and at the time this was the only property in the lane.

When initially moving to Findon, Edwin Douglas had been unsure of what to do with the land he had bought around Fox Down. Fortunately, Albert Short the local farmer of Findon Farm was keen to rent it for grazing his sheep. So the problem was solved, an agreement drawn up and Edwin Douglas had a comfortable income by allowing the land to be used by the gentleman farmer and also by Bob Gore for training his racehorses.

George Gully brought his string of horses up Steep Lane and onto the downs near Fox Down. Sparks then began to fly and led to litigation taking place in connection with the angry dispute over which racehorse trainer had the right to school horses on the Findon Gallops.

The sequel was seen in an action in the High Court of Justice in 1906 and entered in the list of the Chancery Division as "Gore and Douglas v. Gully". The first named then applied for an injunction restraining George Gully from trespassing on the Gallops to train his Nepcote Lodge horses.  Continue to read what happens when Bob Takes George to Court.