A CHANCE letter from Canada to a Memory Lane reader has thrown the spotlight on the fascinating past of a prominent and recently restored Georgian property in Worcester.

The Red House in Castle Street, is one of the two listed and protected buildings, expensively returned to their former glory as part of the impressive new police station and Magistrates' Courts complex.

It was the home for many years of Thomas Gwynne Smith, a nationally-renowned huntsman, horseman, trainer, and "dealer in high class horses" whose stables were in an extensive yard behind his house at 4 Castle Street and also in The Butts.

He was a widely-acknowledged expert in the training of horses for fox hunting, show jumping and long-distance steeple-chasing. People from all over the country were among his clients.

Thomas Gwynne Smith was the grandfather of Mrs Norma Andrew, of Ardrossan, in Alberta, Canada, who is busily engaged in tracing her family tree and has been anxious to discover if The Red House still survives in Castle Street.

Last year, by luck, she met Bob Ball, a fellow Canadian who, in conversation, revealed that he had a cousin living in Worcester - Mrs Eileen Lunn, of Homenash House, Barbourne.

Mrs Andrew was soon putting pen to paper to write to Mrs Lunn and to send her old photographs and all manner of details about her grandfather, Thomas Gwynne Smith.

Armed with an old photograph of The Red House despatched from Canada, Mrs Lunn and her daughter Mrs Joy Fulcher, of Hallow, went to Castle Street and also researched old city directories.

Although the street has changed out of all recognition through the decades, their conclusion was that The Red House did, almost certainly, still survive and was one of the recently restored Georgian properties neatly sandwiched between the new police station and the Magistrates' Courts Centre.

By sheer coincidence, it was the place where Joy Fulcher had her first job as a girl in 1958 - secretary to the deputy county architect for Worcestershire. A new office block had been built on the stables yard to the rear of the house for staff of the county architect's department.

Originally, The Red House stood roughly midway between the extensive castle-like County Jail and the former Presbyterian Church in Castle Street.

Mrs Fulcher and her mother have sent photographs, old and up-to-date, of Castle Street to Mrs Andrew in Canada. Her late father, Percy Gwynne Smith was born in St Mary's Street, Worcester, in 1880 - one of the four sons of Thomas and Florence Gwynne Smith. He emigrated to Canada in 1910, and first went homesteading on the prairies of Saskatchewan.

Percy Gwynne Smith and his three brothers followed very much in their father's footsteps and all became "notable horsemen".

Mrs Andrew has sent Mrs Lunn a copy of the lengthy obituary of her grandfather, published in the Berrow's Worcester Journal. It is not dated but he is thought to have died in the late 1920s or early 1930s. He was 81 and was widely-known simply as "Tom Smith".

Berrow's had this to say of him: "This veteran sportsman was an inveterate hunting man and was one of the best-known figures in the hunting field. A few months ago he entered upon his 65th hunting season with all the enthusiasm of a young man.

"He began hunting at the age of 14 with the Worcestershire Hunt. Its hounds were kept then at the Virgin Tavern on the outskirts of the city. The huntsman named Ward lived at what is today the golf club house at Tolladine.

"However, it was with the Croome Hunt that Tom Smith earned his name and fame as a jumper, most spectacularly in clearing the wall at Croome Court, one of the highest jumps ever cleared by anyone in the country. To him it was an ordinary incident of the day's sport, though it was a feat that resounded from mansion to kennel.

"Mr Smith also hunted widely outside this county and had the reputation of being a highly skilled rider, sometimes clearing railway crossing gates and canal locks as part of his remarkable jumping exploits.

"Tom Smith once explained: 'A hunter to be of any use in the field must have courage, and courage in abundance. There is nothing more wonderful than the courage of a well-bred horse'. He judged thousands of horses in the course of his career at shows all over the country, and he had broken in many thousands more.

"He also rode at countless point-to-point race meetings and, as a trainer and rider of jumpers and breaker-in of refractory horses, he was known throughout the British Isles and America. Courage was obviously his personal keyword too, because in his long career he had broken almost every bone in his body at one time or another.

"Tom Smith often recalled the day that he met the Worcester veterinary surgeon Mr Carless while cooling his horse's legs in the Severn near Worcester Bridge. Some bystanders said the horse was so awkward that it would not go in the river, but Mr Carless said he would dearly like to see it swim across the Severn.

"As a result, Tom Smith arranged to meet Mr Carless at 9 o'clock the next morning, and the horse swam across the river with ease and seemed to enjoy the experience. The vet was apparently filled with wonder."

The Berrow's Journal obituary also included a tribute from the Earl of Coventry of that time who wrote: "He was quite the best man to school a young horse I ever came across, and his wonderful success as a rider was due to his perfect hands, good temper and extraordinary nerve which never failed him. I often look at the Croome Park wall which he jumped so spectacularly. I never saw Tom Smith knock a horse about, and he seemed to impart his own fine courage to his mount."

Thomas Gwynne Smith was buried in Astwood Cemetery.6