The extensive complex of stables at Weyhill that were largely on the site of the present-day Millway House Nursing Home were built by Andover horse dealer Henry Barnes in the early 1860s to provide a strategic outlet for his stock of hacks, carriage horses and hunters.
Having sold regularly at Weyhill Fair during the days of the fair in October, permanent premises nearby that offered plenty of space for stabling were an ideal option.
In 1877, the stables were taken over by the Andover and Weyhill Horse Company Ltd, the successor business to Henry Barnes.
Expansion of the company to Cricklewood increased its interests but the base at Weyhill was continued as well.
Advertisements for the company continued throughout the 1880s but the loss of its manager to another company in early 1891 caused it to be wound up.
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The property comprised 74 loose boxes, 11 stalls, manager’s house, a men’s mess and bedrooms, 45 acres of pasture land and a small training ground.
It is significant that the land was described as pasture and not gallops; plainly the training of racehorses at Weyhill was a subsequent enterprise and it was originally stabling for the purpose of rearing hacks, carriage horses and hunters.
The property briefly became the headquarters of the National Pony and Galloway Racing Club but after two seasons, the organisers decided that Weyhill was too far from London and the stands and enclosures erected there were dismantled.
The club was replaced by a new occupant in 1893 who would set the scene for the future.
During the first half of the 20th century, the racing stables at Weyhill were universally known as Hartigan’s Stables after the very successful trainer who owned them from 1905 until his death in 1952.
But Frank Hartigan was not the first of his family to train racehorses at Weyhill.
He had come from an Irish racing dynasty, with his grandfather on his mother’s side, John Hubert Moore of Tipperary, said to be the first Irish professional trainer, while two of his sons, Garrett (Garry) and Willie Moore (Hartigan’s uncles), were both successful jockeys and trainers in England.
The elder of the two, Garry, moved from the Curragh stables in Ireland to take over Walnut House stables, in Littleton, near Winchester in 1886, while Willie, who had an early racing career in Germany, joined his brother at Littleton before taking up residence at Weyhill, in 1893.
By that time his elder brother had already moved on again to Seven Barrows stable at Lambourne after the death of the previous owner, Charles Jousiffe.
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It was at the stables in Weyhill, in November 1895, that a correspondent from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News who styled himself ‘Ubique’ visited Willie Moore.
Driving up to the stables with his companion photographer, they met the proprietor astride his pony coming across the common and he gave them a tour of the stables.
‘Ubique’ was evidently very familiar with most of the horses there and in his account, gives some detailed histories of various racing successes.
The greatest at that particular moment had been ‘Why Not’, winner of the Grand National the year before, trained (as all the Weyhill stock were), by Moore’s private trainer, John Collins, who lived on site.
At the time of the visit, the horse had just come in from a long gallop and was set to run in the Sefton Steeplechase.
According to the writer, he had much improved since 1892 when he lost most of his form and had become ‘decidedly sketchy in his jumping.’
All credit was due to those who restored him to glory and enabled him to win the greatest race of the steeplechasing season.
Today, Whynot Lane, just off The Avenue, commemorates this long-forgotten Grand National winner but not the public house also named 'The Whynot', now called The Chestnut Tree in Weyhill Road.
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This, according to Bert Earney, was inspired by the name of a Southampton solicitor’s own house.
The firm had acted for the brewers Strong & Co who tried for many years to gain a licence to open a hostelry there without success until a change of heart on the part of the local magistrates in 1950.
Another horse much admired at the stables in 1895 was The Soarer – a ‘good looking six-year-old by Skylark who last year won seven times out of eleven efforts and this spring finished ahead of First Dragoon in the Champion Steeplechase at Liverpool’.
The Soarer was to win for Willie Moore a second Grand National in 1896, while in the same year, another Weyhill steed, Ludgershall, won the National Hunt Steeplechase at Hurst Park.
Three years later, Willie Moore won a third Grand National with ‘Manifesto’.
By this time, he had moved from Weyhill to Danebury House, in Nether Wallop, which was once the house and stables of Tom Cannon, one of the foremost jockey trainers of his day.
The string of Grand National triumphs was followed by three third placers in 1900, 1902, and 1903.
Having toured the stables, the writer commented on the training ground that stretched away from the stables to the south.
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The account ends with the unnamed guide taking the two correspondents by pony and trap down towards his own house in Thruxton for a late lunch.
On the way, they stopped off at Weyhill’s Brewery House which adjoined the training ground, ‘where Captain Faber, late of the RHA, once well-known as the gallant owner of Johnny Longtail and other useful chasers, and since for brewing the best beer in Hampshire, now keeps open house; but he was not at home so we drove on, and just as we pulled up at the front door of our guide’s house, we overtook our host Mr Moore on his pony, and before he knew what was happening, he was "taken", the result I think all his friends will agree to be a remarkably good likeness.’
So, Willie Moore moved on to Danebury, where he stayed until 1907, when it was sold again and he moved on.
His racing connections in Germany must have taken him there again at some point, but it was the wrong time in history; when World War I broke out in 1914, he was interned there as an ‘enemy alien’ and after that his name seems to disappear from the record.
Back at Weyhill, there was a flurry of occupying trainers.
From 1899, they were under the stewardship of Harry G S Davies, a 35-year-old trainer born in Pembroke and educated at Winchester College. He left in 1901 and Mr W R Baker took over.
Here there was a connection between the brewery and the stables as Baker trained horses for David Faber who was the driving force behind Strong’s brewery, buyers of the small Weyhill brewery in 1894.
It was David’s brother, Walter Faber, who ran the brewery, as well as being the local MP.
Mr Baker moved to Collingbourne stables in 1905 and it was then that they were taken by former jockey Frank Hartigan who, like his uncle, had switched from riding racehorses to training them.
That part of the story follows next week.
If you are interested in local history, why not join Andover History and Archaeology Society? Details can be found at andoverlocalhistoryarchaeology.uk.
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