SN_Info3-18

Sheltie News Informationen | Ausgabe 3 ~ 2018 8
The Hunt for the A-book
Text and photos by Reidun Monsholm, “Chesslike” Shelties, N
One of my very special interests
is that I am a notorious
collector of old books, magazines,
pictures, pedigrees and
other Shetland Sheepdog stories,
and especially about the
very old history. I love the feeling
of getting a new piece in
the big jigsaw puzzle, and at
the moment I have a reputable
collection of Sheltie history.
This interest I share with my
friend Sissel Tangnes and in
October 2015 she and I went
on our "annual" girl trip to England,
and this time we were extra
excited, because one of the
visits we had planned was to
Burton Farm Cottage with Marion
Forster Parish, who is responsible
for the archive of The
English Shetland Sheepdog
Club. Marion lives next to
Joyce Miles (“Milesend”), who
also has a very large archive of
old Sheltie materials, including
the “Riverhill” and “Monkswood”
archives, so here is a lot
of Sheltie history gathered at
one courtyard. We had worked
some time in the scenes to be
allowed to come into the ESSC
archive and to dig into the old
archives and look for a book
that almost nobody had heard
about when I asked around -
the A-book. This was a book
that was mentioned by Felicity
Rogers in the 1966 ESSC
Handbook, and she wrote in
the article "Color in the Shetland
Sheepdog":
A friend on the islands was
very friendly and gave me a
copy of the (A) Book of Registrations
of the original Shetland
Collie Club, later changed to
Shetland Sheepdog Club. The
(A) book was for dogs from 10
to 12 inches, and the (B) book
was for those from 12 to 15
inches - unfortunately, the (B)
book has been lost. In the (A)
book there are 139 entries,
starting with number 1, dated
05.02.1909, one sable and
white dog called Chrichton
Frisk, and ends with Ida, a sable
and white bitch, dated
02.09.1926.
Later she wrote about the A-
book in the article "Why is it so
difficult to breed a good Shetland
Sheepdog". Since I have
read this article - at least 20
years ago – I wanted to study
this book, but only last year I
intensified the hunt for it. I
started asking in England if
somebody knew where this
book was. I first thought it had
to be in the “Riverhill” archive,
but Joyce Miles knew nothing
about the book. Then I asked
around among English breeders,
though nobody realized
what I was talking about. Eventually
I came to Jan Moody,
who earlier organized the archive
for the ESSC and she
knew what I was looking for.
She could surely say that this
book had been in the archives
of the ESSC when she was in
charge of it. She then put me in
touch with Marion Forster Parish,
who has had the big responsibility
to manage the
large collection of historical
material for the club. After
some exploration she could
happily proclaim that she had
found the book and that we
were most welcome to come
and see it and other items we
were interested in. Now it was
really, really hard for us to say