In 1903 Richard Blakeborough (1850-1918), celebrated collector of North Riding folklore, wrote an article for a cheery weekly family newspaper called the Northern Weekly Gazette about cockfighting in the village of Hutton Rudby.
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| Cockfight in London: c1808 |
He had written on the subject before and he knew that cockfights hadn't stopped as soon as they were banned in England in 1835 (they haven't stopped yet), but now he had been contacted by Richard Robinson, a 68 year old retired farmer living in Old Battersby, who had anecdotes to tell him.
You can see from his article that Blakeborough enjoys the old North Riding dialect most of all. He was a dialect enthusiast, well known for his recitations and writings.
He begins
As late as 1850, many a main was fought in or near to that village on a good Sunday morning. And one Robert Dorking, a weaver about that date, possessed a bird of such note that on many occasions it was matched to fight some of the best birds in the North. These contests came off somewhere in Newcastle, whither Dorking tramped from Rudby with his bird.
(Robert Dorking's name was actually Robert Dalking, so I'll alter the name accordingly from now on)
The people of Hutton Rudby always knew, even before Dalking got out of the bed the next morning, when his bird had won.
"It was like in this way,"
said Richard Robinson,
"when Dalking's cocks lost, for he sometimes used to hug as many as four on his back – his missus used to come out with her head lapp'd up in a shawl, looking that dowly and never a word for nobody. She used to creep along with her head down, an' were as cross as a bear with a sore head. But when Dalking came home victorious, she was out with her best hood, fleeing all over the village to spread the good news; there was no ho'ding her back at such times."
Robert Dalking often took his friend Dick Charlton's birds with him to Newcastle and other places. They used to train their birds together and often matched them against each other for practice.
This was a favourite spectacle for other villagers. They used to roar with laughter as they watched Robert Dalking. He leapt when his bird leapt, struck out with his heel and flapped his arms as if they were wings. He was so eager and excitable he never noticed that he was imitating his bird exactly and he never noticed the hilarity of the witnesses.
Once he was plodding along with his favourite bird in a basket on his back when he passed a farmyard. As he went by, a farmyard cock gave such a loud crow that Dalking's bird answered the challenge from inside its basket. The farm bird couldn't let this pass. It leapt over the hedge and began to follow Robert Dalking, at last flying in a rage at the bird in the basket. Dalking stopped and said,
"Whya thoo knaws, if thoo's 'tarmined to feight, feight thoo s'all; an' Ah aim fer yance 'at thoo'll git summat 'at thoo nivver bargained for."
A lad from the farm saw the fight start and ran to his master and mistress
"Oh, measter! Oha, mistress! there's oor black-breasted, red-necked, yaller-heeled cock feighting another yan, an' oor yan's giten neea chance, for au'd Nick's ticing tother yan, an showing ont hoo ti rise and strike. It's reet what Ah's telling o' ya! for Ah've just left him, louping, flapping, striking, and dildering, all roads fer Sundays. Its reet! an' if ya deeant ho'd to be trew all 'at Ah say, gan oot an' see fer yersens"
"Aud Nick" is, of course, the Devil. Or, in this case, Robert Dalking. But by the time the farmer and his wife got there, all they saw was their own bird looking dishevelled in the road and Dalking disappearing with his basket into the distance.
Another anecdote involved a clergyman – who might have been the Revd Robert Barlow of Hutton Rudby, as we know he loved to follow the hunt and may well be the sporting pastor here:
"A clergyman of sporting tastes" happened to surprise Dalking and friends having a friendly match on a Sunday. He reproved them for spending the Sabbath so, saying how wrong it was to urge the poor birds to fight.
"Nay," said Dalking, "they'll feight, parson, wivoot onny urging; if we set two tigither tha'll feight for sartin."
"Is that so?" said the clergyman, knowing that it was.
"It's true, hard eneeaf. Just you watch 'em,"
said Dalking, setting down two cocks, which began instantly to fight. Everyone including the clergyman watched eagerly. "I am fully convinced, Dalking," he said at the end, "of the truth of what you said."
To which one of the company slyly said,
"Ya'll nut tak' it ill parson, when Ah say, what y teeak a vast o' pleasure i' being convinced"
Interest in the topic of cockfighting didn't die away. A year later Richard Blakeborough's son John Fairfax-Blakeborough wrote on the subject again in his own 'By-Gone Cleveland' column in the Northern Weekly Gazette
"There is yet at Stokesley the remains of an old cock pit, and Mr William Moon Wrightson, of that town, told me some time ago that when he was a young man cock-fighting was indulged in – principally on Sunday morning. The cock pit to which I refer was on the premises of the Bull and Mouth Inn. My informant – a well known poultry fancier – has himself seen birds matched here, and another informant tells me that in his youth cock-fighting was indulged in at Hutton Rudby by one or two people – his father included"
Notes
Richard Robinson (c1836-1919) was born in Hutton Rudby to a Rudby-born farmer William Robinson. Richard grew up on his father's farms as the family moved from tenancy to tenancy (as a farmer gained in experience over the years, he would be offered better and better farms). They lived first in Hutton, then at Middleton Grange, Middleton-upon-Leven and lastly at Shotton, Co Durham. Richard himself farmed at Hornby Hall, at Foxton Village, Co Durham and at Town Farm, Ormesby before retiring with his wife Elizabeth Morrison to Old Battersby. He died aged 85 and is buried at Ingleby Greenhow.
Robert Dalking (1817-93) was the son of Robert Dalking, handloom linen weaver. He was born in Hutton Rudby and worked as a weaver for some years. By 1861, with handloom weaving a thing of the past, Robert and his wife Elizabeth Wilkinson were working as Game Watchers on the Skutterskelfe and Rudby estate for Lord Falkland. By 1871 they had moved to Gunnergate near Marton, where he became head gamekeeper at Gunnergate Hall. He and Elizabeth spent the rest of their lives at Gunnergate.
Dick Charlton – there were many Charltons in Hutton Rudby, but I can't identify this one.
William Moon Wrightson (c1844-1923) was a Stokesley-born joiner and the son of a Stokesley master joiner, Stephen Wrightson. He lived with his wife Sarah Passman on West Row, Stokesley.
I can't find a Bull and Mouth Inn in Stokesley. There was a well-known inn of that name in Leeds, but White's Directory of 1840 lists only the Black Bull and the Bull and Dog in Stokesley.
Richard Blakeborough's article appeared in the Northern Weekly Gazette on 25 April 1903 and John Fairfax-Blakeborough's article on 16 April 1904.
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