Margaret, I don't know, quite possibly. The previous owners seemed to have dumped a lot of builders lime in the garden, and goodness knows what else. However I've had that 'Maman Cochet' for at least 15 years and never hips before this. I do think it's a sport because the hips only set on one branch, but maybe me not feeding it very much has contributed. Not all flowers on that branch have the perfect reproductive parts as in one of my photos; some have about half the stigma as that and can still be successfully pollinated though. A few flowers are 'normal' with no fertile female parts at all. The fertile flowers also offer a ring of stamens (you can get a few stamens out of a regular 'Maman Cochet' but you have to hunt for them in the rosette bundle) so another advantage is that you can then also use its pollen.
An interesting feature is that the squarer the receptacle is, the less round the hip is too. Also the hips seem to grow in size very quickly and they don't come off very easily until very ripe. A very ripe hip will have quite a bit of red colouring to it which I find unusual for a Tea. It makes me wonder if there is a bit of 'something else' in its ancestry besides Tea.

My 'Dr.Grill (ex Honeysuckle) has always produced hips anywhere on the bush. Margaret, when your plant is a little older try pulling out the centre petals when the flower is open and apply fresh pollen of anything. You should get a hip. I can't get any hips on my 'William R. Smith' (came as Dr. Grill). I might try again but I gave up before.