(cont)

unprecedented in the 1960s. More recent changes have also affected the sport, with stewardship strips, the act of leaving grass land around fields, making access easier and meaning horses are jumping from grass to grass.

Changes are also evident in public opinion – but despite the ban, Jim believes that the profile of the sport is healthier than ever, rather than increasingly under threat, with hunts necessarily having to become more proactive in promoting and proliferating the way of life that has existed for centuries. The badly drafted legislature has, arguably, resulted in more people returning to the sport and speaking up in favour of it, having the ironic effect of actually promoting rather than destroying hunting with hounds.

With the ban on movement now lifted the hounds, which are usually exercised from August ready for the first meet on the last Wednesday of October, and on subsequent meets twice weekly, are free to enjoy a season of trailing, which will see them cover over 40 miles of countryside each time.

The hunt covers a massive part of Lincolnshire, from Baumber right out to the Trent at Gainsborough, and up as far as the Brocklesby territory of North East Lincolnshire. Jim is responsible for the welfare of the 40 couples of hounds, and after the normal morning routine of washing out the kennels and feeding the hounds with the fallen stock collected from local farmland, selects 191/2 couples of hounds in the draw yard for the day, with the more flighty bitches favoured for the pack’s cliff-land territory and the more enduring doghounds favoured for other regions. After offering a hand with the horses to partner Julie and daughter Helen, who takes over from the Kuster’s Groom of the Year when Jim retires, the hounds are loaded onto the lorry and the hunt meets at around 10am ready for Master John Lockwood to arrive at 11am.  The pack then hunts until 1.30, changing horses before continuing until dusk.

John is the third generation of Lockwood Master, with over 27 seasons under his belt and with father Arthur serving 41 seasons. “I’ve been here 42 seasons – one more, just to beat Arthur!” laughs Jim.

The quality of foxhound at the kennels is extraordinary – it’s believed the Burton Hunt is the oldest pack in the country, and that it was the first to cease hunting deer in favour of foxes.