History ... the Heulyn Years

Once upon a time, many, many years ago in an olde worlde village called Catford, my interest in English Springers began. 'Muffin', or Delta Lady was purchased from a local petshop in 1977 for the princely sum of £50 (or was it guineas??) A working-bred bitch who came complete with distemper! However, it was Muffin that inspired the long love affair with the breed and also the start of the essential but oh so expensive relationship with vets!

Muffin attended obedience classes where she had to compete against the superior skills of Border Collies and GSDs but it was at one of these classes, when someone uttered those fateful words 'she's beautiful, you should show her'! Duly, Muffin was taken to an Exemption Show where she did nothing, but that day, we caught the showing bug. Angela and I went to Southern Counties for a look round and saw and fell in love with Sh Ch Verulam Liver Pate. She was already in whelp at the time and breeders, Lyn and Keith Payne agreed to us having one of her puppies. Verulam Tom Boy, 'Leila' was not the most beautiful

pup - our next door neighbours thought we had bought a Saint Bernard puppy! - but she taught us the rudiments of the breed in terms of ringcraft and trimming. Sadly at only a year old, she had a pyometra and had to be spayed, so no puppies from Leila ever. She provided a fantastic moment for our newly-established Heulyn kennel when she was awarded a RCC from Post Graduate at the SESSS under Carolyn Muirhead. Leila went on to win one CC and two more RCC's.

Sh Ch Verulum Liver Pate

Bowswood Brandy Snap - 'Rosie' had also joined the kennel during this time. She too won a RCC but only managed to produce one dog puppy to Barlochan Engineeer. Unfortunately she died at a young age from a liver-related disease. Two more Bowswoods joined the Heulyns after that, Bijou and Bracken, 'Mai' and 'Minnie'. Mai inspired the interest in the Field Trial and working side of the breed and she eventually became one of the breed's few full champions.

A week after winning her third CC, Mai also had a pyometra and had to be spayed, so the full weight of expectation fell on the shoulders of Minnie. She was mated to Marshring Major Mitchell giving us Heulyn Belle Heather, 'Cissie'. She in turn was mated to Bowswood Brown Doublet, which produced Tansy (Heulyn Catch The Wind) who stayed with us going on to give us our first home-bred Champion in Heulyn Desperado 'Finn', as well as his sister, Lilly who was the best 'pacer' the breed has ever seen!

Ch Bowswood Bijou of Heulyn - 'Mai'

Dave with Tansy at 5 months - look at that hair!!!

Sh Ch Heulyn Desperado JW

Bowswood Belle Esprit 'Sadie' was bought in along the way and mated to Finn to produce Jack and Phoebe, Flambeau and Folie Bergere. Jack has had a great show career, winning 1 CC and 6 RCC's.

Tansy also had a second litter to Penrioch Patter Merchant producing H Eclaire, 'Katie' who, mated to Petranella Purple Ronnie went on to produce the Kennel's second homebred champion in 'Maddie', H Giselle.

Heulyn Flambeau

Sh Ch Heulyn Giselle

Dogs along the way that have made an impact on me have been Bowswood Barleycorn, Verulum Liver Pate (who started it all!), Verulum Tutti Frutti, Woodgill Shadowfax of Bowswood, Elimvek Earthbound and Lochside Alpine. Just a few of the many dogs that I haved admired and wished were mine!

After Mai, none of the other dogs seemed to possess the same sort of inclination to retrieve birds and my interest in training the dogs in the field has been curtailed somewhat. Actually, they were just too thick!! However, I am looking forward to the challenge of training Seamus in the New Year..... watch this space!

Dave with Katie - Heulyn Eclaire