Hunting Coniston, plus pictures from meets across the country
You’ll be hard-pressed to find more committed hunt supporters than those of the Coniston, known for their unquestioned camaraderie and deep love of hounds
THE SUPPORTERS
THE Coniston has always had a special place in my affections for the wonderful hunt staff that came from its hub in the special village of Ambleside. Anthony Nicholson was my first-ever kennelhuntsman, recommended to me by the late Tony Younghusband who was a regular visitor to the Fells and employed Anthony in his first job as second whipper-in at the Mendip.
Anthony stayed with me for 10 seasons and was a simply brilliant whipper-in with an amazing eye for a fox crossing a distant hillside, no doubt a skill honed on the Coniston Fells.
His brother Michael is now joint-master and huntsman of the Coniston hounds.
Mark Maloney, Mike Osman, Philip Kennedy and Robert
Dixon all hailed from Ambleside, worked for me over the years as either kennelmen or whippersin, and all had an innate understanding of hounds. Mark has moved back to Ambleside, Mike Osman is no longer with us, Robert Dixon — whose father Dave is now joint-master of the Coniston — is hunting the Caerphilly hounds and Phil Kennedy — whose father Steve
is the hunt secretary — is kennelhuntsman to the Stowe Beagles.
This particular Coniston hunting day started at 9am in Kathy Hodgson’s kitchen, where the hunt supporters gathered for a pre-hunting coffee morning.
“This is one of a dozen or so mornings like this,” explained joint-master Nick Mowbray, who organises many of the hunt’s fundraising activities, “where generous farmers and their wives allow us to use their homes. If we raise a couple of hundred pounds each time, it all adds up.”
The hunt’s very own tea urn moves around between venues and Nick runs a raffle, with a host of prizes given by generous local supporters. Neil Salisbury had given a lovely calendar from his own gallery and photography business, so the joke was that none of the raffle winners chose the calendar until it was the last
‘There is a sense that hunting is something that’s always happened and should continue’
prize left. Neil is secretary of the Central Committee of Fell Packs and runs the most important fundraising event of the Coniston Hunt’s calendar, the Coniston Country Fair on the banks of Coniston Water, in late July.
Seventy-five-year-old Dave Dixon is the other joint-master. “It’s my life” is quite simply how he explains his deep commitment to the hunt. Dave spends a lot of his time liaising with the farmers and landowners.
As a foot pack there is no large subscription income, so small, locally-organised fundraising activities are the way forward to gain the necessary funds. Throughout the Lakes, each valley used to have its own committee that raised funds for the local hunts: the Coniston had 17 such committees. As well as fundraisers, these coffee mornings give the slightly older supporters, who are less able to climb out on to the fell sides than they perhaps once were, a chance to stay involved socially and to contribute to their hunt.
Mrs Hodgson was busy making the hunt breakfast, helped today by ex-master Anne Parsons and her daughter Nicola Maloney. Anne is the daughter of the revered Coniston huntsman Anthony Chapman, who was colloquially known as “Chappie”.
“My father always wished that he had been a master, so I was thrilled to be able to do it myself,” Anne remembers fondly. “I still live in the same house in which I was born: the huntsman’s cottage in Ambleside.”
Among the busy throng of supporters was Mary Logan, wife of the late Bruce Logan, who ran the Rydal Show so successfully for many years. Their daughter, Claire Logan-Stephens, has taken over the stewardship of this unique Lake District attraction, held at Rydal Park, just a short walk across the fields from the Coniston kennels.
Kathy’s husband, Jonathan Hodgson, arrived just as we were leaving his warm kitchen, leapt
off his quad bike and greeted us with clasps from his huge mucky hands, fresh from shepherding on the hill. A giant of a man, he epitomises the camaraderie and tradition of this rural community.
More of a rugby man than a hunting enthusiast, he welcomes the hounds with hospitality, as do his four brothers, who all farm locally. There is a sense that hunting is just something that has always happened and should continue to happen. This is an agricultural community based on stock farming and neighbourly cooperation.
Seventy-eight-year-old Roger Westmoreland, chairman of the central committee of fell packs and ex-joint-master of the Coniston for 17 seasons with his wife Doreen, has farmed just over the hill and now his son-in-law Michael Nicholson has moved in to the farmhouse with his daughter Helen.
THE TEAM
LOW cloud and drizzle had enveloped the high ground and the prospects for sport looked poor, but Michael dropped the ramp of the hound trailer just the same and 27 level athletic fellhounds came tumbling down the ramp. This is what fell hunting is all about; a deeply ingrained love of the hound, with all its qualities and individual traits scrutinised by all. Amateur whipper-in for the day seems to be the 12-year-old huntsman’s son, Hector Westmoreland-Nicholson, and he is no slouch at knowing each hound’s name.
The Coniston used to have a professional whipper-in and the last person who held that position was Michael Burton, who is now kennel-huntsman at the Cumberland foxhounds. Michael’s father, Tom Burton, is a Cumbrian by birth and was countryman at the Duke of Beaufort’s for 17 seasons before returning to Ambleside where he now lives in the bungalow at the hunt kennels.
Paul Hardwicke, second whipper-in at Badminton for a similar 17 seasons decided that life in the north sounded too good, so he has also moved to Ambleside. Tom and Paul are regular followers and set off after Michael as he strode out up the fell into the mist. Michael’s wife, Helen, is no lazybones on the hill. She has diversified at the farm from breeding mule sheep, the cross of a Bluefaced Leicester tup on a Swaledale ewe, to continuing her profession as an exercise physiologist — the Lakeland
Ultra Marathon is her speciality, for which this year she is training clients as well as running herself in aid of the “fire fund” for the Teme Valley huntsman.
Helen is also the incumbent Mayor of Troutbeck. One of the oldest institutions in Lakeland, this honour, bestowed annually at the Troutbeck Mayor’s Hunt, is deeply associated with the Coniston hunt. Many Lakeland communities used to have their own mayor, but Troutbeck is the only one remaining and the list of past mayors includes many hunt officials both past and present.
THE HOUNDS
HOUNDS spread out through the bracken beds and rocks on the slopes around the Borrans reservoir where luckily the first trail was brief, as these fast and heavy-voiced hounds concluded the line successfully in a crash of music. The fog had completely shrouded the hill and if the hunt had been any significant distance, we would have lost the hounds.
Heavy-voiced, athletic and hard-driving, fellhounds have been bred for centuries to scale precipitous rocky terrain at pace and to hunt a drag when their fox had moved on many hours previously. They were an essential element of fox control for Lakeland hill farmers and have been an invaluable outcross to many lowland packs, adding their low-scenting qualities.
“Longevity is very important in a fellhound,” Michael points out, “because they gather so much experience of how to hunt on the fell.”
The most notably forward and athletic doghound is Coniston Regal 09, a tough-looking grey dog by Ullswater Banker 04, who is still at the sharp end in his ninth season. This age-defying constitution is one of the priceless attributes of the fellhound.
A SENSE OF HISTORY
HISTORY and continuity run deep through the Coniston hunt and the same families have been prominent throughout. The Chapman and Logan families had been deeply involved with both the Coniston and the Windermere harriers, John Logan’s private
pack. The huntsman Harry Lancaster chiselled his name and the date of 1887 into the slate slabs that make up the hound lodges at the Ambleside kennels, only a few feet from the tiny stonesided boxroom that was Lancaster’s own lodgings.
In those days, the hounds would visit different valleys for a week at a time and both the huntsman and his charges would be billeted at a local farm, so there was no need for a hardy huntsman to have elaborate accommodation. The hounds were trencher-fed and would depart to various farms for the summer months while the huntsman found alternative work, perhaps stonewalling or shepherding. There is no need for any stones to surround the hound yard, because a natural grey cliff face of solid slate is a much more secure kennel wall.
The kennels are on a hillside overlooking Ambleside, with Lake Windermere in the distance, but amazingly the hounds used to get lung problems called “flounders”, despite the breezy environment. Eventually they discovered that bracken, which had been put into the rafters of the kennels as insulation, was the cause so the kennels were changed accordingly. The Windermere harriers amalgamated with the Coniston foxhounds in 1908.
The kennels were owned by the Logan family, but Bruce Logan gifted them to the hunt and the hunt has built a bungalow in the kennel field. Michael Nicholson, the great Anthony Chapman’s grandson, started as whipper-in to huntsman Stan Mattinson in 1991 and in 1996 he started hunting the hounds, a vocation he has continued ever since, apart from one season when the late Owen Balding hunted the hounds. Initially, Michael would go stonewalling in the summer, but now his farm at Troutbeck keeps him occupied out of season.
Despite the obvious difficulties that an increased human influence has had on Lakeland hunting, the traditions of the fells still run true, as do the bloodlines of both the fellhounds and the doughty folk who hunt with them.