Some eight or nine varieties of dogs come within the general classification of Bull Breeds.  All lay claim to the Bulldog as a common ancestor, which when crossed with certain other breeds and developed by careful selection according to the use or fancy required of them, produced these different and distinct sorts.  One such breed is the Staffordshire Bull Terriers, which as his name implies is a product of the Bulldog and one or more from the Terrier group.

  Where we of such a mind we could probe back far into history to establish the variety and form of the Bulldog's early progenitors.  However, the purpose of this little book is to cover rather the development of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier than to delve too patiently into early and extinct forms like the Molossus which existed in Greece thousands of years ago.  Nevertheless, the Bulldog has played a very important part in canine history.  He is accepted as a national breed  in this country, and as the vital ingredient in the manufacture of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier he deserves at least more than a casual glance at his background.

  The Bulldog and Mastiff are closely linked in the past.  Some will have it that at one time they were as one breed and parted their ways centuries ago to develop along distinct and seperate lines.  Certainly, they are related intimately among the shortfaced group of dogs and they or a kind of dog closely approximating to them were known in Great Britain as early as the the beginning of the Christian era.

  From whence they came is uncertain, but the belief that the Phoenicians imported them to Britain well before this time would appear reasonable.  Certainly, by the time the Romans landed here such dogs were well established and domicilied.  We are told in early times that the ancient Britons took with them into battle against the Roman invaders, large, ferocious and formidable dogs of ugly countenance.  Undoubtedly such dogs, the war-dogs, were ancestors of the present day Bulldog and his more modern off-shoot, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.  That these animals were of supreme courage and effective in battle is evident from the fact that many were shipped back to Italy.  There they were used in arena sports and pitted against armed men and wild beasts - pastimes at which it is understood they showed considerable prowess.

  From Italy, many of these dogs found their way back to other lands in Southern Europe.  There in union with divers native breeds they produced and eventually influenced a number of breeds we accept today as pure-bred varieties, heavily built and shortfaced kinds such as the St. Bernard of Switzerland and the Bullenbeiser of ancient Germany, progenitor of the modern Boxer.  In France, where the English Court was held for some time during the twelfth century, large numbers of these dogs were aquired to regale the royal functions with baiting sports.  Writers of the day describe them as being possessed with exceptional courage and tenacity, huge in head and short-muzzled.  There they were known as Alaunts and from the Alaunt descended the great fighting dog of France, the Dogue de Bordeaux.

  Although the dubious sports of baiting the bear and other large animals can be traced back to the days of the Norman Conquest, enthusiasms for these practices never waxed so high as in the time of our Elizabethane forefathers.  In this era dogs were named according to their function or appearance.  Names such as 'Keeper', 'Watchman', 'Butchers Dogge' are examples.  Dr. John Caius in his De Canibus Britannicis, 1570, describes a dog, almost certainly the Mastiff or Bulldog - '.....an huge dogge, stubborne, earger, burthenous of body and therefore of little swiftness, terrible and fearfull to behold and more fearse and fell than any Arcadian curr'.  Caius groups this animal and other 'functional' breeds under one heading Canes Rustici or dogs of the country.  They are referred to as Mastives, a word suggestive of large breeds but in those days descriptive of curs, although not with the same derogatory implication as in modern usage.  Again, all the dogs used at the baiting sports and as guards wereof necessity big ones of considerable girth and substance.  To them the old English word 'masty' meaning 'fat' would have been applied and perhaps later corrupted to the name Mastiff covering all such dogs of these functions.  Certainly, from such a family of dogs would the Bulldog have been developed although he would not have been named Bulldog untill the firm establishment of the sport of Bull-baiting.  In this he was to take a vital and prominent part.

  Although cursory mention is made of Bull-baiting four centuries before the Elizabethane period, its hey-day as a sport was undoubtedly during the sixteenth century.  Bear-baiting had begun to lose its vogue.  It had to be conducted in a more confined space than was essential for Bull-baiting.  It was a slower sport and no doubt entailed less 'gate-money' for the promotors to whom the more extravagant spectacle of Bull-baiting opened up greater possibilities.  However, this 'new' sport did need a faster dog than hitherto.  Consequently, the 100 - 120lb. animal gave way to a small, more agile edition of his kind, a dog of some 90lb. weight which lacked nothing in the courage and ferocious tenacity of his forerunner.

  In this revolting sport the dog was expected to pin the bull by its nose to the ground, maintaining his hold meanwhile.  To approach the bull and take hold he had to move in low and fast with one eye on the larger animal's horns.  If he was careless he stood to be impaled or tossed high in the air only to be shattered when he hit the ground.  Some were fortunate enough though, to be caught in their owners' capacious aprons or slid down a long staff to safety before they reached distruction in this way.  It became necessary then to produce a dog rather shorter in the leg, certainly lower to ground than before and a somewhat closer coupled, more squat animal was bred.  This came a little nearer in type at least to the Bulldog we know today.

  The Bear Gardens and open places on the South Bank of the Thames became popular meeting places for the lovers of the sport and these places were patronised in the same manner as a football fixture would be supported today.  The influence of the sport and its thrill spread to many provincial towns and even today some public squares and places bear the name 'Bull Ring' and similar indications of the cruel pastime which held such early sway in the land.  Its popularity became such that on occasions events got out of hand with imprmptu baits at Bank Holiday Fairs.  The authorities had little success in their spasmodic efforts to stem these sportss and it was not until 1835 when the Humane Act was passed that baiting sports and the rather lesser known  but possibly crueller sport of dog-fighting were abolished.  At least, such was the intention of the Act and although it was instrumental in halting the baitings, it was not so easy to stop dog-fighting which now came into its own, in spite of the law.  It was a sport which could be carried on in any cellar or hole-and-corner venue.  to avoid the law was relatively easy therefore, and indeed in many mining areas dog-fighting was carried on more or less openly, and a Sunday morning out, with a full programme of dog-fighting, cock-fighting, and finishing up with some bare-knuckled bouts, was common.

  At the start of the nineteenth century dog pits were springing up everywhere.  It was a fashionable sport not only with the seamy section of the populace but patronised in no small measure by the aristocracy who would enjoy wagering the outcome of a match between two celebrated dogs in a fight to the death.  London had its notorious pit an Duck Lane, westminster, and here a regulation pit was maintained.  Dogs were matched weight for weight and matches were controlled by rules which remained unchanged and were rigidly enforced for over 100 years.  Crafty attempts to sabotage a contasetant by rubbing some obnoxious concoction into his adversary's coat were seldom  successful at such a place although similar ruses may well have got by at matches which were less well managed.  at the Duck Lane pit considerable sums were won and lost.  Winning dogs achieved great fame and were sold for sums which would put to shame some of the prices taken for modern show dogs.  Occasionally 'kinky' battles would be staged and it is on record that one such bout featured a dog matched against a monkey, the simian being provided with a metal bar which he used as a club on the dog's head!!!!  It was a sport in which gameness was a by-word.  No other creed was wanted in a dog except this, but then again, he had to be faster.  The bear-baiter had given way in size to the bull-baiting dog, and now the latter was too big for dog-fighting.  Thus a smaller, faster, determined dog, full of courage and fire, appeared on the scene.  He was needed to fight and kill and never give way.  Breeders turned to the process of making such a dog and although their methods were perhaps diverse in the early stages their ultimate production was a dog we now know as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

  The actual method of manufacture of this dog is rather clouded.  Suffice to say early crossings with the Bulldog and a small active Terrier took place about 150 years ago.  The suggestive names 'Bulldog-Terrier'' 'Bull-and-Terrier' and finally 'Bull Terrier' give evidence of such a union.  Which Terrier was used in the union is indeterminate.  The Bulldog of the day, that is the breed which existed here around the start of the nineteenth century was a dog with cleaner lines than we accept today.  He would have weighed however, some 60lb. for the smaller kind of Bulldog would have received preference in such a breeding scheme.  This dog was crossed with a small native Terrier, short-coated and perhaps 20lb. in weight.  The Terrier family is a large one, being an immense concourse of all sorts of Terriers and types of Terriers from the common material of the land.  It is a family of considerable antiquity and although no doubt many and varied were  the kinds put to the Bulldog it would seem that the main lot in the union fell to the Old English Terrier.  This breed is extinct now but it is an important one in history.  Not only did this tough little Terrier prove instrumental in the production of the Staffordshire but he was progenitor of other indigenous breeds such as the Old English Black-and-Tan Terrier, later to be known as the Manchester Terrier.  Stock which came from the union of the Bulldog and this Terrier would have varied in extreme cases at maturity between 20 and 60lb. weight, averaging no doubt between 30 and 45lb.  This weight margin allowed a dog which was substantial, muscular and athletic.  These attributes motivated with courage and tenacity produced fighting dogs for over 100 years and gave us the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.  Our breed's forerunner appeared in a variety of coat colours - red, fawns, brindles of many shades and any of these colours with white.  White dogs and black-and-tans were not uncommon with liver-coloured specimens, although the last mentioned colours are not approved in the modern show world.

  The old Pit Bull Terrier, the dog we call the Staffordshire Bull Terrier today, gave us the all-white English Bull Terrier.  This was formed around the 1860's in Birmingham by James Hinks.  He crossed the original dog with the Old English White Terrier, now extinct and possible sundry other breeds predominantly white.  Soon after the turn of the current century, the all-white, fashionable Bull Terrier was crossed back to the Pit Bull Terrier and a coloured variety of the former kind was evolved, being named the Coloured Bull Terrier.  Unfortunately for the Pit Bull Terrier, these breeds had the advantage over him in the matter of title.  Being the original Bull Terrier he should hav had prior claim to that name.  However, his existence through the nine-teenth century had been obscure,and he had an evil reputation because of his fighting prowess. He was never considered as a show dog, unlike his all-white cousin which recieved Kennel Club blessing with the coming of the dog shows in the last quarter of the last century. With this acceptance the all-white was named 'Bull Terrier' and our own breed lost the prerogative of the name to which he is by right entitled. However, it was not until 1935, due to the representations to The Kennel Club by a small band of enthusiasts, that he was accepted to the Registry of that august body as a pure-bred variety, under the title Staffordshire Bull Terrier. As it happens, his admirers these days have no quarrel with the name, for he was virtually evolved in the Black Country, the mining area of South Staffordshire and it is felt the dog has a proud and traditional title, which as a native breed suits him and which he deserves.