Hanstead Stud
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The Hanstead Stud was a
breeding farm A stud farm or stud in animal husbandry is an establishment for selective breeding of livestock. The word "stud" comes from the Old English ''stod'' meaning "herd of horses, place where horses are kept for breeding". Historically, documentation ...
in England for
Arabian horse The Arabian or Arab horse ( ar, الحصان العربي , DIN 31635, DMG ''ḥiṣān ʿarabī'') is a horse breed, breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is ...
s. It was active from 1928 to 1957, and its animals had a significant impact in many countries, "second only in importance to"
Crabbet Arabian Stud The Crabbet Arabian Stud, also known as the Crabbet Park Stud, was an English horse breeding farm that ran from 1878 to 1972. Its founder owners, husband and wife team Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt, decided while travelling in the Mid ...
. It was based at Hanstead Park, a
country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
estate near
St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...
in
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
, not far from London.


Background and beginning

The business was started and run by a mother and daughter.
Annie Henrietta Yule Annie Henrietta Yule, Lady Yule (1 August 1874 – 14 July 1950) was a British film financier and a breeder of Arabian horses. She co-founded the British National Films Company and Hanstead Stud, and commissioned the superyachts of her day. Earl ...
(1874-1950) came from a prosperous Anglo-Indian merchant family; in 1900 she married her cousin Sir
David Yule Sir David Yule, 1st Baronet (4 August 1858 – 3 July 1928) was a Scottish businessman based in British India. The ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' judged him "arguably the most important businessman in India" and quoted his obituary ...
(1858-1928), who had come out from Britain to join the family business in Calcutta. They had one child, Gladys Meryl (1903-1957). In 1925, they commissioned a new family home, Hanstead House, where Lady Yule and her daughter lived for the rest of their lives. Sir David died in 1928, leaving his widow and daughter extremely wealthy women; The New York Times reported that Gladys inherited $100 000 000, equivalent to $1.6 billion in 2022 money. The women bred livestock (
Aberdeen Angus The Aberdeen Angus, sometimes simply Angus, is a Scottish breed of small beef cattle. It derives from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine and Angus in north-eastern Scotland. In 2018 the breed accounted for over 17 ...
and
Jersey cattle The Jersey is a British breed of small dairy cattle from Jersey, in the British Channel Islands. It is one of three Channel Island cattle breeds, the others being the Alderney – now extinct – and the Guernsey. It is highly productive – ...
) and horses, including
Suffolk Punch The Suffolk Horse, also historically known as the Suffolk Punch or Suffolk Sorrel,Dohner, ''Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds'' pp. 349–352 is an English breed of draught horse. The first part of the nam ...
es (large
draught horses A draft horse (US), draught horse (UK) or dray horse (from the Old English ''dragan'' meaning "to draw or haul"; compare Dutch ''dragen'' and German ''tragen'' meaning "to carry" and Danish ''drage'' meaning "to draw" or "to fare"), less ofte ...
, still used to work the land, until tractors became widespread) and
Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...
s (a breed used for
fox hunting Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of ho ...
as well as
flat racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...
and
steeplechase Steeplechase may refer to: * Steeplechase (horse racing), a type of horse race in which participants are required to jump over obstacles * Steeplechase (athletics), an event in athletics that derives its name from the steeplechase in horse racing ...
s). In 1925 they expanded their interests to the breeding of
Arabian horse The Arabian or Arab horse ( ar, الحصان العربي , DIN 31635, DMG ''ḥiṣān ʿarabī'') is a horse breed, breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is ...
s. That summer the pair visited
Crabbet Arabian Stud The Crabbet Arabian Stud, also known as the Crabbet Park Stud, was an English horse breeding farm that ran from 1878 to 1972. Its founder owners, husband and wife team Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt, decided while travelling in the Mid ...
, whose founders, husband and wife team
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (17 August 1840 – 10 September 1922), sometimes spelt Wilfred, was an English poet and writer. He and his wife Lady Anne Blunt travelled in the Middle East and were instrumental in preserving the Arabian horse bloodlines ...
and
Lady Anne Blunt Anne Isabella Noel Blunt, 15th Baroness Wentworth (née King-Noel; 22 September 1837 – 15 December 1917), known for most of her life as Lady Anne Blunt, was co-founder, with her husband the poet Wilfrid Blunt, of the Crabbet Arabian Stud in E ...
, had introduced the breed to England in 1878. (They too had a daughter as their only child, Judith Blunt-Lytton, usually known as Lady Wentworth.) This visit began a long relationship of buying and leasing horses; sometimes the studs were adversaries and sometimes partners.


Significance in Britain and abroad

A 1997 article on "Hanstead Horses" begins with this overview: :"Next to Crabbet, no English stud has been as important as Hanstead. Hanstead’s worldwide influence is particularly remarkable in light of the relatively short time it was in operation — not even 35 years of breeding — and the relatively small number of foals produced. There were barely 125, while Crabbet had more than a thousand spread over 93 years." A third stud, Courtlands, was also held up to be of the same level, and the three competed against each other at annual shows such as the one at the
Roehampton Club The Roehampton Club is a private members’ sports club in Roehampton in southwest London, England. It is set in of parkland, close to Richmond Park. Originally established in 1901 as an officers’ polo club, the Roehampton Club has sporting and ...
. International trade before and after World War II meant that the Hanstead horses were appreciated in countries such as the United States, South Africa, Australia, the Netherlands, and Canada.Cadranell "In the post-war years Hanstead was a mature stud, with a band of 10 to 15 mares and a battery of homebred stallions." Gladys took formal control of the stud in 1946; Annie Henrietta died in 1950, leaving her £9 million. Gladys "served as president of the Arab Horse Society in 1949. She was also chairman of the Ponies of Britain Club, helping to preserve Britain’s native pony breeds." By the time of her death at the age of 57, she was considered the best horsewoman in Britain, according to
Richard Davenport-Hines Richard Peter Treadwell Davenport-Hines (born 21 June 1953 in London) is a British historian and literary biographer, is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Early life Davenport-Hines was educated at St Paul's School, London, 1967- 71 ...
in the ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
''. She never married, having been "fortune hunted" by a thousand suitors, but for the last years of her life she shared Hanstead House with her colleague and friend Patricia Wolf. Wolf, born circa 1914, had served during the War in the
Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...
, the women's branch of the British Army. She joined the stud in 1952 as a stable girl, the bottom rung of the ladder, but "was quickly promoted to head groom, then stud manager, and finally, companion-secretary".


Death and dissolution

Gladys Yule died within a few weeks of Lady Wentworth, who had inherited Crabbet from her parents and had run it for 40 years. The deaths of these two only children, at a time of high post-war inheritance tax, meant that in 1957 a substantial number of British-bred Arabian horses left the country, improving the breed's bloodlines elsewhere. About a dozen from each stud went to
Bazy Tankersley Ruth Elizabeth "Bazy" Tankersley (, formerly Miller; March 7, 1921 – February 5, 2013) was an American breeder of Arabian horses and a newspaper publisher. She was a daughter of U.S. Senator Joseph Medill McCormick. Her mother was progressiv ...
’s Al-Marah Arabians in the United States. Patricia Wolf was bequeathed options on some of the horses, which she took up. She was also given £100 000 and all the pets. Following the death of Gladys Yule in 1957, not only was the bloodstock dispersed, but the landed property was put up for sale. Hanstead Park remained on the market for a couple of years, as many country houses were being demolished at this time. Eventually it was sold to an American evangelist and was used as a college; when this closed, the estate became a corporate training centre. In 2011 the property again changed hands, this time to be developed as housing; the 1920s mansion has been converted to apartments There are still commercial stables operating from Hanstead, though as a
livery yard A livery yard, livery stable or boarding stable, is a stable where horse owners pay a weekly or monthly fee to keep their horses. A livery or boarding yard is not usually a riding school and the horses are not normally for hire (unless on work ...
and
riding school An equestrian facility is created and maintained for the purpose of accommodating, training or competing equids, especially horses. Based on their use, they may be known as a barn, stables, or riding hall and may include commercial operations descr ...
rather than as a stud.


References

{{coord , 51, 42, 15, N, 0, 20, 49, W, display=title Horse farms in the United Kingdom Arabian breeders and trainers Farms in Hertfordshire Yule family