During the 1760’s Captain John Byron was charting a large bay on the south-east corner of West Falklands and named it for the large amount of foxes he saw, the now extinct ‘Falkland fox’ or Warrah’. Fox Bay East lies on a large deep-water bay on West Falkland opposite Fox Bay West. There are mountain ranges if distant, all around, the Coast Ridge and East Head, the West Heads, to the north Sulivan and Philomel, and to the north-east Blue Mountain. There are three tussac islands in the bay, once important for winter cattle fodder. There is also a tiny island 'Knob Island' at the entrance to the bay which had a light as a warning to shipping. Once a large sheep farm belonging to Packe Brothers, Fox Bay East including its units at Dunnose Head and Packes Port Howard was bought by the Falkland Islands Government in 1983 and subdivided into smaller farming units. The Government kept the Fox Bay East settlement renaming it ‘Fox Bay Village’ and thus keeping a government presence on the West.

History

Captain Robert Christopher Packe arrived in the Falklands in 1851 with the intention of starting a new business in the islands. On arrival he immediately acquired leases on Fitzroy and Port Louis (East Falklands). His brother Edward arrived in 1866 and they expanded their holdings to 105,000 acres, taking out leases on West Falklands at Fox Bay East, Port Howard and Dunnose Head. Russell Buckworth, a nephew of Edward Packe arrived in the Falklands to learn about sheep farming. After living at Little Chartres for a while with a John Smith he moved into a house built at Dunnose Head. On 14 March 1890 Robert Packe, Russell Henry Buckworth and Stella Goodhard formed a partnership from then on known as Packe Brothers & Co.    

Fox Bay East became the main settlement arm of Packe Brothers  Co. Ltd. Dunnose Head and Packes Port Howard were smaller sections used as ewe camps in later years although at first Captain Packe ran cattle at Dunnose Head as he was involved in hunting wild cattle which provided a ready income for their hides and meat. Captain Robert Packe is credited with introducing large scale sheep farming to the Falklands. He himself remained unmarried and lived at Sulivan House, Stanley. Shepherds were brought from the UK and Fox Bay East became a very successful sheep farm. While there were houses at both Packe’s Port Howard and Dunnose Head men from the main unit at Fox Bay East would travel to the smaller sections for dipping and shearing. It was a difficult station to run given its three sections. Managers included HV Cobb who preceded Howard Wickham (Wick) Clement who ran it from 1934 to 1967 and finally Richard Cockwell from 1967 to 1983. The farm settlement at Fox Bay East eventually had 7 main houses including a manager’s house, a large cookhouse for single shepherds and navvies, a store, and a cinema. There was  a fine woolshed and pens, a carpenters shop, cowsheds, hen runs, dog kennels and gardens. At the time of its sale Fox Bay East had two outside shepherds houses on the main Fox Bay section one at Coast Ridge and one at Little Chartres. Shepherds shanties where sheep drives could overnight on long drives from the other sections of Packes were Hawk’s Nest Shanty, Gun Hill Shanty and Blue Mountain Shanty.

Sources include: Report on the Blue Book for 1888/89, Unspoilt Beauty of the Falkland Islands -Algernon Asprey text by Phyllis Rendall, Falkland Rural Heritage- Joan Spruce with Natalie Smith, nationalarchives.gov.fk/Jane Cameron National Archives /Buildings/ Land/General/Early leases of land post 1842,nationalarchives.gov.fk /Jane Cameron National Archives /People/19century families,The Dictionary of Falklands Biography (including South Georgia) - Edited by David Tatham,

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Photographic credits: Header: Robert Maddocks

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