THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE ― These Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and are progressively growing to be the only record of life around Findon, West Sussex, England.  Everyday stories about real people..... in fact, a potted history of the village.  The topics today, are the history of tomorrow.

THE PUZZLE OF THE MUNTHAM PERCHERONS

Copyright Valerie Martin 2011

 

In November 2011 I was surprised to receive an email from Muriel Bond mentioning Percherons at Muntham Court.     This was a story I had not come across previously....

"Hello Valerie, I was looking for information about Col. Ulric TYNNE and stumbled across your fascinating story about the Muntham Court Mansion.

I am involved with the British Percheron Horse Society and have been studying the early stud books of the breed. It was whilst going through the stud books of between 1930 and 1940 that I found Col. Ulric Tynne listed as a breeder of Percherons and his prefix was Muntham. However, I have not as yet discovered if he actually bred any Percherons or even owned any.

If anyone visiting your site has information of Percheron horses at Muntham Court Mansion, I will be pleased to hear from them. In the meantime, congratulations on a very interesting site, and by the way, the gates look splendid and it is therefore no wonder that Col. Ulric wanted to hide them away.

Best regards, Muriel"

This was indeed an intriguing story and I set about trying to find out about these most elegant of the heavy draught horses having a connection with Findon but, unfortunately, drew a complete blank.    

It seemed to be a closely guarded secret and I hoped that the future would help unearth more of the past.   

Later in the month I heard from Muriel again...."Dear Valerie, I recently emailed you regarding a Percheron Stud owned by Col Ulric Thynne.

Having researched further, it would appear that a stud started with a prefix of Hashe and was jointly owned by Sir John Ramsden and Colonel Ulric Thynne with the address of Muntham Court. However, the address of the many horses that were registered under the prefix was Bulstrode Park, Gerrards Cross, Bucks. This was also the address of Col. Sir John, Bart., Ramsden.

Are you aware of any connection between the two men? Perhaps it was just their Army careers that brought them today.

These records are dated around 1922 and it would appear that later, Col. Ulric Thynne adopted a lone prefix of Muntham but I cannot find and horses bred under that prefix. I have attached a photo found in our stud book number one, of a stallion registered under the prefix Hashe and as you will see the address is Muntham Court. I cannot establish exactly where the horses were being bred, was it Muntham or Bulstrode Park I wonder.

I hope you will find this of some interest.

Regards, Muriel Bond"
 

I was most interested to see the above old photograph of the Percheron stallion Quapulet confirming that he had, in fact, grazed the Findon turf.   The title of the picture shows that he was foaled on 8th April 1918 and reputed to be the property of the Hache Stud at Muntham Court.    This gives the first valuable clue that more than one Percheron was around in Findon.

My first brush with these giants of the horse world.... the Percheron breed of draught horse, must have been back in the early 1990s when I frequently visited the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton and saw Robert Sampson's Percherons .    Those were the days.    I remember he operated with a large team of white Percherons regularly setting out to do logging on the hillside.

See http://www.sampsonpercherons.co.uk/index.htm

What an absolutely magnificent sight they were hauling the trunks of trees and thundering down the tracks.  

I cannot wait to find out more on the Findon Percherons and add more to this webpage.

Continue if you would like to read about The Shooting of Edward Wormald Thynne

 

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Do let me know of anything you hear about Findon - not too controversial.   Please note that opinions expressed in the Findon Chronicles are not necessarily reflective of my own thoughts.... but sometimes they are!

  This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon and beyond.