The wave riders of West Norfolk
Will Cursham enjoys a morning’s hunting – and making history
for, the likelihood is that they were for bagging and bolting foxes for foxhunting.
Many hunts can lay claim to a long tradition of foxhunting and it is the Charlton Hunt, established in 1675, that is generally supposed to be the oldest. Yet if “foxe nets” were indeed used for foxhunting by Sir Thomas Le Strange, it may be that Norfolk, and not West Sussex, is the cradle of foxhunting.
So a real sense of history hung in the air as Newton and I arrived at Hall Farm around 6am. About 30 mounted followers, and a strong contingent of foot-followers, had gathered around 25½ couple of West Norfolk foxhounds and their huntsman, Toby Coles MFH. As I scrambled aboard my hireling and joined them, it struck me that Sir Thomas would have been delighted by the fact that, 500 years on, hounds are still meeting on his family estate, at the invitation of his descendants, Charles Le Strange Meakin and his father, Michael Le Strange Meakin.
There is neither chatter nor stirrup-cups at autumn hunting meets, and we were soon trotting off across the autumn stubbles. I found myself at the front of the field, where I was greeted by Andrew (“Corgi”) Kendall MFH, our fieldmaster for the morning. Kendall, in his first season as Joint Master, is part of a four-strong mastership that includes Coles, Tania Bullard and Senior Joint Master Nick Saffell [Coles has since left].
Whilst Kendall was the architect of the morning, he acknowledged that it was actually the brainchild of the Hunstanton estate’s headkeeper, Gareth Maund. “One of the things we do every year is entertain the keepers with a clay-pigeon shoot. We do this to develop relationships and open up country.
The idea came from one of these days, from Gareth,” explained Kendall.
Maund was following on foot and as we watched hounds work their way around the back of Ringstead, Kendall introduced me to him and underkeeper Michael Inwood. “I have always been interested in all country sports and I used to be involved in hunting, working for one of the Masters of West Norfolk, and so I thought it would be nice to have hounds here again,” explained Maund, who has now been headkeeper at Hunstanton for 10 years.
A man of many talents, Maund is also a writer – he has just agreed to write a column for the Eastern Daily Press on gamekeeping and country life. His research has led him to what may be a famous sporting scoop: “I have heard that one of the first driven shoots may have taken place at Hunstanton, although I need to look through the estate’s gamebooks to confirm this,” he revealed.
There could be little doubt that the efforts of Kendall and Maund were appreciated by the mounted members of the field. There was a real buzz about the morning, as noone could actually remember having hunted at Hunstanton before, including Joint Master Tania Bullard, who has been involved with the West Norfolk for 20 years, either as MFH or secretary, and Roly Beazley, a former chairman of the West Norfolk who has been hunting with them for 30 years.
hares in the stubble
As we moved across the stubbles to the east of Hunstanton Park, numerous hares jumped up (these were studiously ignored by hounds). This reminded me that Norfolk was traditionally a hare-hunting country rather than a fox-hunting one. Indeed, the West Norfolk is something of an island in this respect. “The West Norfolk, along with the Isle of Wight, is only one of two hunts in the UK not bordered by any other foxhound packs. The nearest foxhound packs, the