LOWDOWN Summer 2014 page 25
Winnie’s
Wheelbarrow
All the news that’s fit to bark!
The Basset Hound public
house (above) is the only
one I’ve discovered with this
name - it is in the Wirral (that’s
somewhere up north).
Apparently, it gets its name from
Sir Ralph Basset, 2nd Baron of
Drayton, who bred and hunted a pack
of hounds.
He was born in 1279 and died
around 1341. A bit of light research
has not revealed an obvious
connection with the north-west, his
birthplace and ancestral home was
near Tamworth, in Staffordshire.
He was knighted by the Prince of Wales who became the future, and rather disastrous, Edward II.
Edward II
Sir Ralph was made Steward of the
Duchy of Aquitaine While there he
fought the French protecting English
interests and I wonder if this was when
he first came across the breed?
Later he was made Constable of
Dover Castle and Warden of the
Cinque Ports.
These were difficult and
dangerous times in this country with
rebellions and political upheaval and it does make one wonder exactly
how much time he had to spend with
his Basset Hounds.
However, when he did, I bet it
made a nice change to hacking-up
the French.
It’s offally good!
Winnie’s Wheelbarrow is
for all the ‘odds & sods’ -
orphaned snippets which do not
have a home elsewhere in
Lowdown.
It takes its title from Winifred
Burgess, who with her husband,
Norman, owned a kennel of
Basset Hounds in Ringmer, Near
Lewes, East Sussex, back in the
sixties.
Winnie was a well-known
sight in the village, regularly
spotted with her wheelbarrow
collecting offal for the hounds
from the nearby abattoir.
During the closed season,
hunt supporters would exercise
the hounds on Ashdown Forest
at venues that the BHOC
continues to use today.
It is interesting how this canine
aspect of Sir Ralph’s life is
remembered by the name of the pub,
as the breed does not appear on his
coat of arms (see below), so it begs
the question: how did this detail
about him survive?
It’s a shame this pub is nowhere near our area, it would make an interesting venue for a Club ‘meet’. ☐
A medieval image of a
low, all-white, Basset-like
hound - sometimes called
a Talbot Hound. This
image of one comes from
Haddon Hall in Derbyshire.
The Talbot Hound
appeared on several
families’ coats of arms and
quite a few pub signs.
It is thought that the
breed became extinct
because of its reticence to
hunt with any purpose.
