1866 Rocke, J. Catalogue of the bird collection at Clungunford House

John Rocke’s collection of British Birds

John Rocke (1817–1881) lived much of his life at Clungunford House in south Shropshire where he amassed what was widely regarded at the time, the 1860s, as the finest, most complete, collection of British birds in the country. That is to say he had in the collection, in a room built for the purpose, mounted specimens of virtually every species know in occur in the country. For each species he had both males and females, in many cases their young and for some also their eggs. The collection included a specimen of the, by then extinct, Great Auk.

Clungunford House passed from the family into private ownership in the 1960s and the present owner, Jonathan Roberts, recently discovered Rocke’s handwritten catalogue of Rocke’s specimens in the house. Mr Roberts has declined permission for its appearance on this website. John Rocke’s catalogue is the only identified and located Histo item not available on this website. All the records in the catalogue appear, in full, in Histo's Species Index.

Ed.
10 June 2016