Left to Right - Champions Gold Fever, Jacanapes, Silver Fountain, Melody, Jubilate and Blue Heritage

During the past quarter of a century it is generally agreed that the overall standard of quality in Smooth Collies has improved dramatically.

In no Small way this is due to the contribution made by the Foxearth Kennel of Trevor and Birgit Hayward, based near Wem in rural Shropshire, for they have been responsible not only for breeding countless champions for a variety of different owners in the UK, but also for supplying foundation stock to countries where the Smooth Collie was hitherto unknown.

Trevor comes from farming stock, and his octogenarian father lived a few fields away from Foxearth (at Foxholes Farm ) which inspired the affix).

His early interest owes much to the fact that his uncle took on as housekeeper, Mrs M I ('Zoe') Rhys of the Hughleys.  Mrs Rhys came from a very well connected family in the South of England where her friends included such literary notables as Rudyard Kipling and Daphne du Maurier.  She had owned Smooths' since the '20's, but was not a terribly fervent exhibitor, being more of a stockwoman whose interest lay foremost in breeding.  Indeed, during her colourful life she kept Jersey cattle, Welsh Black sheep, Rex rabbits, as well as a variety of breeds of dog.

She was a great friend of the owners of the Beulah and Westcarrs kennels and with them had started the Collie Association because these ladies felt that the breed was at the time being very much controlled by some Northern breeders who did not always appear to have the best interests of the breed at heart. 

The Association originally catered for Roughs, Smooths and Beardies and aimed to be beyond reproach in its activities.

 When Trevor first knew Mrs Rhys she was already in her eighties and didn't drive, so he would take her to shows.  He remembers her also owning an Irish Water Spaniel and a West Highland White Terrier who were both champions, but she was not a committed exhibitor.

Her family home was what is now Sunninghill Golf Course, so how did such a well-to-do lady come to be working as housekeeper for Trevor's uncle?  She had married a director of Great Western Railways who did not share her passion for dogs, so Mrs Rhys simply packed her bags and left, turning her back on what was obviously a rather grand lifestyle, with butler and maids, and headed for Shropshire and a two-bed roomed cottage with no electricity and a 'privvy' at the bottom of the garden!  Once settled in Shropshire, Mrs Rhys had a never-ending procession of unwanted gentleman callers, as she was evidently a very striking woman.  discussing her problem with Trevor's uncle, he suggested that if she took up the post as his housekeeper, they would leave her alone, so she did.  "And  then", quips Trevor, "he never left her alone"!

Trevor started to handle dogs for Mrs Rhys in the mid-60's and he handled her last champion Blue Heritage of Hughley, who lived at Foxearth from eight weeks of age and who won his first CC in 1975.

Trevor actually started in his own right with Rough Collies, buying a sable and white bitch from Margaret Franklin's Pattingham kennel, and a blue merle bitch from Clare Molony's Westcarrs, but then he decided that he would like to have his own Smooths, so acquired a tricolour dog from the Foxwitchen kennel, Luke, going ten years before he won a first prize, which says something for staying power.

Luke was born in 1968 and was bred by Miss Stewart.  Having studied the breed, Trevor decided he wanted something from the highly successful Peterblue kennel as they had the best. "They used to win everything, and they did have some very lovely dogs, but still people were very jealous of them, winning the double time after time," realls Trevor.

Trevor's first bitch was Wingbelle Lyn, by Ch Peterblue Leader, who traced back to Hughley lines.  his first litter from Lyn was to Luke, his own dog, which produced Foxearth Black Faith, a tricolour, who was later mated back to her uncle, Lyn's brother, the blue Ch Wingbelle Lian.  In this litter was a very lovely blue merle bitch Ch Foxearth Silver Fountain.

Although Silver Fountain was the best puppy in the litter, Trevor had been corresponding with a young Swedish lady called Birgit Jeneby who had been waiting for 21 years for a really good Smooth to start the breed in Sweden.

Birgit at the this time had owned a variety of dogs, starting with a Dachshund which she worked.  Her first encounter with this breed when living in Stockholm was through a Standard Smooth, described by Birgit as "a nasty piece of work" and she rather wrote the breed off.  When offered a Wire, she was not at all enthusiastic, but when meeting the dog fell in love and was hooked.

She then came by a German-sired dog who she made an International Champion, but she was also heavily involved with obedience and trail work, so much so that the local police would often ask her to bring her Dachshunds to track wild animals which had been the victims of road traffic accidents.

Go to Page 2