Ch. Gentleman Jim, the first show Champion.
From the first part of the 1900's.
This dog was also a foundation dog for the famous Dublin Red Strain of Irish Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
After the "Bull and Terrier" breeds split into two camps between
1860 and 1870, the original breed, which was still unspoilt by crossing
with dogs which had not been bred for gameness, was now barred from the official title of Bull Terrier and it
gradually became known as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier to distinguish it from the newer breed (Hinks Bull Terrier).
The reason that
Staffordshire was used as the qualifying term, to distinguish
between the old and the new, was that the colliers and ironworkers of Staffordshire were so attached to dog-fighting
that the sport became practically localised in the Midlands. This area in the Midlands was also known as "The Black Country" (see map).
Nothing were done in the early days to standardise any type,
since courage and physical fitness were still the only
things which mattered. Any dog which proved unusually successful in the pit was certain to be used as a sire,
irrespective of his looks.
There was still a wide variation of types from district to districts, even from breeder to breeder in the same district.
In the Walsall district it was common to find dogs of 34-38 Ibs. which were tall tall enough to convey a suggestion of
Whippet in their ancestry.
Only a few miles from Walsall, in the Darlaston district, the Staffords obviously did favour their Terrier forbears.
They were much "finer" in the muzzle and obviously "terrier faced". They was smaller altogether and lighter boned,
turning the scale at from 25-35 Ibs, and occasionally lighter.
The Darlaston men did say that all the others "must have been crossed with Mastiff" and that "theirs" are the only
real Staffords. There was in a third type in the Cradley Heath area a few miles to the west. These dogs obvious had
some members in the pedigree had
more than a nodding acquaintance with a Bulldog. Short, thick muzzle and broad skull, tremendous spring of ribs and
breadth of chest, muscles which seem to be symbolic of power, everything combines to convey an impression of doggedness.
In 1935 the Kennel Club recognized the breed as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. The men who drew up the scale of points
happened to have Staffords of the "bulldoggy" type, in favour in the Cradley Heath district and the scale were formed
after this type. But, still today the Staffords vary a great deal, depending on which lines it comes from.
