In the early part of this century, one of the dukes of Bedford was President of the Zoological Society of London, and he gave some of these rare Chartley animals to the Zoo at Whipsnade. This herd at Whipsnade had, in turn, gradually grown to about seventeen in number and in March 1973, this herd was also bought by Lord Ferrers. Thus were reunited the two main branches of the Chartley herd and, after a break of some 65 years, the herd has returned to the family in whose care it had been for some 700 years. The characteristics of the Chartley breed are very marked. They are predominantly white cattle with ears, muzzle and feet black, and there is a splash of black on the front of each fetlock.
Some animals have black flecking on the skin underneath the coat.
The white coat is thin and silken during the summer, but this is replaced by a thicker coat for the winter. One of the most attractive sights to see in the young calves in the spring - snow white animals, with bright faces and black ears and noses. Occasionally, an all-black calf is born, and in the 'olden days' when this happened, the calf was instantly slaughtered as there used to be a legend which said the the birth of a black calf meant the death of a member of the Ferrers family within a year. So it is that the 'wild' indigenous cattle, which roamed the forests of Britain at the of William the Conqueror and afterwards, can to this day still be seen as a herd, not just as a relic or memory of the past.