HISTORIC ELTHAM Middle Park - The Turf
John Kennett looks at Eltham’s intriguing horse racing story
idea of a major racehorse breeding centre in Eltham seems almost unbelievable but that was very much the case in the mid-nineteenth century at Middle Park.
The
The Crown-owned land at Middle Park was originally enclosed as a royal hunting ground in 1315 to provide sport for visiting monarchs to Eltham Palace. In 1605 it is recorded that there were 250 deer and 250 oak trees but after the Civil War there were no deer and most trees had been felled for ship building; the land became farmland with a farmhouse, probably built on the site of a former park lodge, where the fl ats of Blann Close now stand, off Middle Park Avenue.
payment for a bad debt it was said, of a brood mare called Glance which he stabled in his back garden.
As this
stable increased he looked for larger premises which he found at Eltham where he moved to with six mares and Neasham as the ‘monarch’ of the establishment.
Was it the air, or the surroundings, that was to see Blenkiron’s gamble pay off as in less than twenty years the half dozen mares had increased more than twenty-fold. The fi rst sale took place at Middle Park in 1856 when thirteen yearlings averaged a little over 100 guineas each. 1867 was the best year when seventy-seven lots made 418 guineas each. These annual horse sales were notable events and brought together celebrities of the turf and fascinated bystanders out for a day’s entertainment. In 1862 special guests were treated to a tour of the establishment and a champagne luncheon followed by the sale at 1pm in front of the old farmhouse where a roped ring was set up for Mr Richard Tattersall to conduct the business.
William Blenkiron
In 1852 the farm was leased to the racehorse breeder William Blenkiron. He was born in 1807 at Merrick, a small village in Yorkshire, but abandoned an intended farming career to become established in London at Wood Street, off Cheapside, fi rstly as a ‘stock and purse manufacturer and general agent’ and from 1836 as a ‘stock and collar manufacturer’. He lived at Dalston where he dabbled in horse breeding following the acceptance, in
20
The details survive for the sale in 1868 when Tattersalls auctioned forty-four colts and fi llies none of which were named but only described as ‘A Bay Colt’ or ‘A Bay Filly’. The father of ‘A Grey Colt’ was stated as Caractacus who won the Derby in 1862. He was not the favourite with the odds against him being 49 to 1. A week before the race a tipster wrote these words:-
Caractacus, whose shape and make, Sets every country clown agape; And, if of the outsiders there,
One horse should pass the winning chair, Take the ‘tip’ and list to me, ‘Caractacus’ that horse will be.
William Blenkiron’s residence at Middle Park
The owner, Mr Snewing, decided to switch the usual jockey for a stable boy named Parsons who achieved the surprising victory.
Other notable horses at the Middle Park stud were The Rake, Kingston, Blair- Athol the Derby winner of 1864 and Gladiateur in 1865, Bicycle, and Hermit who won the Derby in 1867 during a June snowstorm despite ten false starts. Its owner was Henry Chaplin, another Yorkshireman, whose family made a fortune supplying horses to pull carts and horse buses with a large stable complex at the Elephant and Castle, and was a friend of the Prince of Wales. In a love triangle between himself, the Marquess of Hastings and Lady Florence Paget, nicknamed ‘the pocket venus’, Chaplin won and prepared for his wedding. But fi ckle Lady Paget slipped out from her London home to marry Hastings.
The men were rivals in love and racing and at the Middle Park sales in 1866 they outbid each other for a chestnut colt which Chaplin bought for 1000 guineas and named Hermit. The three met again
We are proud of Eltham
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