Hazel Cranham
Peggy Riley with her hounds
More years ago than I care to think about, as a very young girl, I was wandering
along the cliff tops at Birchington in Kent. It was a dismal grey day and I was
one of the children from the local children's home, on this particular day I was
feeling lonely and a little lost, when along the cliffs came a sight that would
stay with me forever. Several large dogs all glowing and golden, my heart
flipped and it was love at first sight, too shy to speak to the girl walking
them I followed at a distance, they made me think of sunshine.
Next day back I went and there they all were there again, I followed them home and
stood outside the kennels watching them through the chain link, what a sight,
there were huge runs with blocks of corridor kennels and what seemed like
hundreds of golden hounds, playing, standing on the roofs of kennels, digging
enormous holes in the runs and generally having a great time. The following day
I plucked up courage to speak to the girl walking some of them and discovered
they were Afghan Hounds from the great Bletchingley kennels, I also had my first
cuddle of an Afghan, he was called Tex later I found out he was the wonderful
Ch. Bletchingley Hillsman.
After several days of gazing at them in the runs a lady came out and asked me if
I would like to come in to see some puppies. "Would I!!", it was heaven, Afghans
everywhere, I think I talked more that day than I had ever done in my young life
and I was home. Peggy Riley arranged for me to be able to spend my free time
with her and later became my Guardian for a while She took me to my first Crufts,
what a day, all the "greats" were there, the hounds were fantastic and no they
were not all nervous wrecks, a few were, but many like Hillsman and Peggy's
special girl Ch. Bletchingley Zara were great and very outgoing characters.
My favourite was Ch Bletchingley Talookdar, Taj had a gorgeous head and the most
wonderful long mandarin beard, he was tall and elegant but unfortunately was not
very outgoing and in public places became rather wide-eyed but I was the
proudest person ever as I groomed him prior to Peggy taking him into the ring,
then watching her win BOB with him at Crufts 1957. Peggy used to tell me she
felt he was not quite giving his all on the move, although he looked great, when
he died it was found he only had one lung.
One lung or not he had one of the loudest voices I have ever heard, he could
howl like a Banshee. Many were the nights Pam Kingsnorth (remember Bletchingley
Bethsheba of Sheherezade) and I would drag ourselves out of bed and run the
lengths of all the kennels trying to quieten the hounds down after Taj had got
them all going, by the time we got to him he would be laying on his bed with
that look of innocence of his face "What me? I was trying to sleep".
Peggy adored her hounds and fed them the best food available then, wholemeal
biscuits soaked in the juices of their cooked beef, heart and tripe with a
sprinkling of liver over the top. The cooking pots seemed to be boiling
endlessly. There were no freezers and the weekly delivery of meat was kept in
big metal dustbins, by day three we dreaded opening them. We would cook huge
pans of porridge for the pups with black treacle added and lashings of goats
milk and minced beef and bone meal. I cannot recall anyone with itchy skins or
picky feeders.
Grooming was endless, in those days the hounds were bathed using soap flakes (no
conditioner) dried, then laid on their side and were brushed in layers against
the fall of the coats. Bay Rum was brushed in to finish off and amazingly they
had strong healthy coats.
Exercise was important and they were out in all weathers, they had to be put to
bed dry and so were taken to the quarantine kennel, known as the villa, where
there was a large wooden trough filled with fine sawdust, after a good dunking
in this and a brush out it was surprising how quickly they dried out.
Hardpad and Distemper was still around and we had it all at Bletchingley, one
hound to be seriously affected was Bletchingley Yana, she recovered but lost all
her coat which never grew again, her teeth went dark yellow (a side affect of
the disease) and she refused to eat anything other than sponge cake for the rest
of her life, her brother unfortunately contracted it and died but Yana refused
to give in (just like a woman).
One of the worst aspects of Bletchingley was the khaki bib and brace overalls,
Peggy would buy job lots of them, all one size - large! I was a skinny little
thing and I hated them, to add insult to injury Peggy would send them to the
Laundry and they came back starched rigid, poor Pam Kingsnorth (thinner than me
even) used to wear a huge studded leather belt and pleat her overalls under it
to avoid getting herself caught up, when the wind blew they inflated or flapped
dangerously like kites.
 Belinda Lee with CH Bletchingly Hillsman and CH Bletchingley Zara on the beach at Westgate-on-sea in the 1950s |
 Kay Kendall on the beach at Birchington |
Along with the Afghans were red Cocker Spaniels (all with fiery temperaments)
Poodles and other odd small breeds at times, also the boarders so it was hard
work but also a very exciting time. Afghans were a great novelty breed then and
were used extensively for celebrity publicity shots and also appeared in the
film "The Adventures of Zorro", Hillsman especially, with his wonderful
temperament was very popular. The old, battered photo is of film star Belinda
Lee with Ch Bletchingley Hillsman and Ch Bletchingley Zara. Belinda was later
tragically killed in a plane crash. I was lucky enough to be photographed with
the hounds and was interested to hear from Dee Waterman that she saw the
pictures of me in Australia and actually recognised me from all that time ago, I
can't be wearing as fast as I thought?
As I said it was an exciting time and later it also brought me my very first
Afghan, a gift from Peggy called Bletchingley Zillah who unfortunately hated the
show ring but spent her life happily trying to kill anything that wasn't an
Afghan, she also produced a very nice litter to my second hound Lanza of
Carloway
All these years later the magic is still there. I look at my present little band
of girls and they are still my sunshine and I feel privileged to have had the
joy of so many years of being owned by those wonderful things called AFGHAN
HOUNDS
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My very first Afghan Hound Bletchingley Zillah
Reproduced from the SAC Magazine 1999
Hazel Cranham - Zanavar Afghans
Updated 06-01-08
Unless otherwise indicated all content © Hazel Cranham-2006-2008 all rights reserved