Page 142 - K9News_Issue16_May2021

Breed Standard
British Manchester
A view from our President
The British Manchester Terrier Club was
founded in 1937. Before that there had been
numerous clubs for the “Black and Terrier” all
of which failed for various reasons. When the
Black and Tan was split into two breeds, the,
English Toy Terrier and the Manchester Terrier
it was necessary to create a club especially for
Manchesters. According to Miss Schwabe of
the “Of Dreams” kennel, the word ‘British’ was
added to indicate that it was a club for the breed
and not just a club based in Manchester for
terriers.
When my husband. Peter, and I bought our
first Manchester in the early 1970’s we joined
the club and found a small organisation with a
Secretary called Phil Margiotta. We learned
very fast that it was dominated by three rather
grand ladies, Phil, Enid Teague Knight and
Nerolie de Lavis Trafford. Their Affixes were,
respectively, Prioryhill, Eaglespur and Tyburn
and if you look back in your dog’s pedigree you
will find all of them as the foundations of you
dogs breeding.
Phil was an amazing woman. She had
inherited a Club with almost no organisation,
run on amateur lines. Phil’s first breed was
Dobermans, and she used her experience of
their clubs to reform the BMTC. She lived in
Hastings and did not drive. She used to say
that Hastings was cut off from the rest of Britain
as it had bad roads and rail networks. This
did not stop her travelling by train with all the
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The
Terrier Club
Mrs L J Eva
paraphernalia of a Secretary and show manager
and several of her dogs. Committee meetings
and shows started when her train arrived at
the nearest station. She ran everything. She
was Secretary, Treasurer, Show Manager
and publisher of the Year Book and the Club
Magazine, “Highlights”. As the Club got bigger
and she became older, her mother became
weaker and she began to experience the first
symptoms of cancer she, very reluctantly,
allowed other Club members to take on some of
the duties of running the Club.
The Club prospered and grew, but it had some
serious problems. One we found early on was
that the three leading ladies did not approve
of just anyone breeding Manchesters. They
guarded the breed fiercely. They knew that the
numbers were dangerously low and the gene
pool shrinking. Enid had helped bring the breed
back from the brink of extinction and its welfare
was precious.
The other problem was that there was no help
for Manchesters that needed rehoming. I
remember being asked to go to the country
kennel of Battersea Dogs Home in Egham,
Surrey to see a dog that had been found by the
police in a squat in London and abandoned.
She was terrified and had been moved to
Egham as it was quieter there. They were not
sure that it was a Manchester. When I saw her,
pressed against the back of the kennel, too
scared to come out, I confirmed that she was a