Newcomers to the world of purebred dogs are often startled by the different names their breed may have had over time, and wonder why one breed could be known by different monikers; this is largely due to a breed’s association with a particular place or even a person who lived in that place. In the UK alone, there could be a village, city, town, hamlet or shire, each associated with the same dog breed. If there was a significant estate in that locale, and the lord of the estate hunted with or even developed a particular breed, the breed’s name could be a nod to that family.

The Bedlington Terrier is a good example of this. Over the years, it was interchangeably referred to as the Rodberry, Rothbury, Northumber Fox Terrier, or the Northern Counties Fox Terrier. Ultimately, the breed was named after the mining town of Bedlington, Northumberland in North East England where the dogs were first developed. This occurred around 1870 when fanciers involved themselves with the breed, but the Bedlington’s real beginnings were fifty years earlier when Joseph Ainsley bought a dog named “Peachem” from a man in Rothbury (note the name, Rothbury) named William Cowen.  Peachem was bred to a lass named “Phoebe,” and they produced a dog named “Piper.” Piper’s owner, James Anderson, also of Rothbury, bred him to a bitch named, “Coate’s Phoebe,” and “Coate’s Phoebe,” was bred back to Piper. Their puppy was the first acknowledged Bedlington Terrier, though at the time, the dog was known as “Ainley’s Piper.”  This dog went on to sire many of the early dogs of the new breed.

Image: “Bedlington Terrier [in] Wheat Field with Cypresses” by Sandra Sij is available as fine art, and in home decor and lifestyle items here