This film was made by a local amateur filmmaker Mr Folliott Ward, who worked as a solicitor and councillor in Malton. Ward made quite a number of films of his family and local events in the years leading up to the Second World War and for the first few years into the War. Many of the films record the countryside activities of hunting – not only foxes, but also otters – and shooting: pheasants, ducks and rabbits.  These would take place in the area around Malton, at South Wold and Place Newton...

This film was made by a local amateur filmmaker Mr Folliott Ward, who worked as a solicitor and councillor in Malton. Ward made quite a number of films of his family and local events in the years leading up to the Second World War and for the first few years into the War. Many of the films record the countryside activities of hunting – not only foxes, but also otters – and shooting: pheasants, ducks and rabbits.  These would take place in the area around Malton, at South Wold and Place Newton among other places.  Another one of Folliott-Ward’s films on YFA Online is ARP/Malton Evacuees, made between 1939 and 1942. This shows the Folliott-Ward family with two sets of children that they took in as part of the war-time evacuee scheme.

Unlike the films of grouse and rabbit shooting, this film does not feature Folliott-Ward himself, who did not ride in hunts, although he was involved with them and was clearly friends with those who did. Folliott-Ward’s daughter, Heather Reynolds, seen in many of the films, especially with the evacuees, remembers her sister being given a pony in compensation for being ill, but says that they weren’t really a riding family. In fact Heather had a distaste of the hunting and shooting, especially of the otters, whilst recognising the reasons for hunting.

The fox hunts shown in the film seem to cover two areas: to the South East into the Howardian Hills; and to the north into Ryedale. Amotherby is about three miles west of Malton, and from there the hunt presumably went south towards Hutton Banks Woods, which line the River Derwent. Going north Eden House and Howe Bridge are mentioned, although the latter goes over the River Rye, not the Derwent (locals may be able to identify these places more accurately). The Middleton point to point at Whitwell is just past Hutton, Easingwold is about eight miles west going into the Vale of York, whilst of course Stainton Dale is farther away, just north of Scarborough.   The film gives an indication of just how many hunts and point to point races are packed into this area of North Yorkshire. In fact it is claimed that the first fox hunting was in North Yorkshire at Bilsdale.

This will be of no surprise to those who have been brought up in the countryside, but it will be an alien world to many from the cities. This is undoubtedly a part of the conflict between those favouring and those opposing fox hunting, and other forms of sports involving either hunting or shooting animals: 'Blood Sport' or 'Field Sports' depending on one’s point of view. Certainly this is a division highlighted by the Countryside Alliance, the major campaigner on behalf of fox hunting. 

Hunting animals is of course perhaps as old as the human race, and it is difficult to know how much of this may have had an element of sport attached to it. The use of dogs for hunting is also old: tracking dogs used for hunting were noted by the Romans when their empire stretched to these isles. When the Normans arrived in the wake of 1066 they imported many of their customs, and this included hunting for deer, or stag.   William the Conqueror set aside land for hunting – the New Forest was specifically established for hunting in 1089 – including this part of Yorkshire around Pickering. And with the Normans came also the feudal system of Baronial Lordship – and their estates.  Apart from their ownership of property (leased to them by the King), these landlords and their knightly sub-tenants were set apart by their ownership of horses and their right to bear arms. To raise their status even more they developed various paramilitary sports, hunting being one of them along with jousting and duelling. Even though feudalism was abolished in Britain in 1662, the classes of the nobility, their land and much of their way of life remained.

From the eighteenth century right through the nineteenth, churchwardens were required by law to pay a reward for every fox killed in their parish. Foxes were killed by gamekeepers, quite separate from fox hunting as a sport, and as a result there was a shortage of foxes! The ‘earth stoppers’ would therefore sometimes keep foxes trapped in their holes until the hunt; others bought foxes, many imported from the continent (Bovill).

With the extinction of the wild boars and the near extinction of wild deer – with the shrinkage of forests and expansion of arable land – hunters turned their attention to foxes instead. At first hunted mainly as pest control, fox hunting became a sport in the eighteenth century with the changing shape of the land through the enclosures and the hedging of fields. Many foxhound associations, as they came to be called, were set up in the 1700s. This includes the Middleton hunt, seen in this film, which was established in 1764. This went hand-in-hand with improvements in horse breeding, producing stallions that could better jump high fences. This also led to horse racing, often to, or between, Church steeples; hence steeple racing and point-to-point racing.  At first the racing was looked down upon by many in the fox hunting establishment, before becoming part of it.  Out of this came the tradition of the scarlet evening coat, emblem of fox hunting; and betting. Other parts of the developing etiquette of fox hunting were introduced by Peter Beckford, a Dorset landowner, in his Thoughts upon Hare and Fox Hunting and Essays on Hunting, Containing a Philosophical Enquiry into the nature of Scent, published in 1781.

However, it would be another 100 years before the hunt, as seen in the film, took on the form it still has today. The growth of the railways allowed the new class of rich industrialists to participate, and hunting become organised through hunt committees and the Masters of Foxhounds Association. So it was that parts of the nouveaux riches, once looked down upon by the aristocracy, slowly became integrated with the aristocracy and acquired new status – the money they brought in, through subscriptions, was most welcome.   According to Birley, there was, as now, a lot of social snobbery involved in hunting and the hunting code (see References). Trollope contended: “that it does more to make Englishmen what they are, and to keep them as they are, extending its influences to very many of both sexes who do not hunt themselves ; and we are quite sure that there is no other national amusement among ourselves, no national amusement belonging to any other people, so incapable of exportation, so alien to foreign habits, so completely the growth of the peculiarities of the people with whom it has originated, as is the sport of hunting” (p. 171).

A history of the Middleton hunt written in the 1960s can be found online (References). This mentions Lord Grimthorpe, featured in the film: “In 1932 there began the popular and successful joint Master-ship of Lord Halifax and Lord Grimthorpe. The latter hunted the dog-hounds two days a week, while the professional hunted the bitch pack on the other two. Lord Halifax, though much involved with his public duties, did great work in the southern end of the country, looking after the farmers and getting down the wire, while Lord Grimthorpe worked up the Friday and Monday country, having much assistance from Colonel Deakin and others.”

Although this film was made before there were any legal attempts to ban hunting, organisations had been formed to campaign for this. The League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports was established in 1923 by members of the Humanitarian League and the Vegetarian Society. This in turn prompted the formation of the British Field Sports Society in 1930 to put the other case. This may have influenced the decision by the National Trust not to ban fox hunting on their land at the time of this film, in 1937, when under pressure from the supporters of Our Dumb Friends’ League to implement its charter which expressly forbade blood sports on its land.  A private members bill in 1938 to ban stag hunting failed to get sufficient support. Other than this there hadn’t been any legal moves against blood sports since 1835 when badger, bull and bear baiting, along with dog and cock fighting, were abolished – all mainly working class activities. Otter hunting only become illegal in 1978, when they were in serious danger of extinction.

Under the Hunting Act of 2004, which came into effect in February 2005, the killing of any wild mammal by hounds was banned – note that this only covers mammals: many species of birds can be legally shot for sport. However, fox hunting still thrives – there are still 184 recognised foxhound packs active – with exceptions allowing for hunting if this helps to prevent or reduce serious damage to livestock (or various other things), and that the stalking or flushing out does not involve the use of more than two dogs.

However, despite this Act, hunting remains a highly contested issue: with hunters attempting to get the Act overturned, and those supporting the ban contending that it is frequently flouted.   Hunt supporters give a number of reasons in favour of hunting, among them that it is: the least cruel form of pest control, part of wildlife management, necessary for local jobs, a traditional way of life, and a representation of freedom. Some argue that banning it is in effect discriminating against a minority, by city dwellers that know nothing of fox hunting and don’t appreciate the valuable animal welfare that those engaged in it do.  

Given the passion the ban arouses, it is not clear how objective any of the claims vis-à-vis pest control are. At a countryside rally in Hyde Park, the President of the Countryside Alliance Baroness Anne Mallalieu said: "Hunting is our music. It is our poetry. It is our art. It is our pleasure. It is where many of our best friendships are made. It is our community. It is our whole way of life." (This was later included in her submission to the Hunting Inquiry set up by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.)

The League against Cruel Sports, and other supporters of the ban, contest all these arguments. The former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, herself the daughter of hunters and not normally a champion of 'progressive' causes, has argued that none of the arguments in defence of hunting stand up, and has called for hunt monitors to be licensed by the Home Office so that they may collect footage of illegal hunting without harassment and intimidation.

The other parts of the film connected to hunting are also very much alive and well. Ampleforth College beagles are still used by college students, in legal hunting, including rabbits which are excluded from the Hunting Act. This is amateur horse racing over fences for hunting horses.  Horses running in Point-to-Points must be registered thoroughbreds – obtaining a Hunter Certificate from a Master of Foxhounds stating that they have hunted for at least four days in the season, with some exceptions. The riders too must have a certificate from the Hunt Secretary. The races are regulated at national level by the British Horse Racing Authority (BHA).  Many races are still held in the same places, and across Yorkshire, throughout the year, attracting crowds of spectators, and occasionally producing steeplechasers and jockeys.

References

 Derek Birley, Sport and the making of Britain,  
Bovill, E. W., English Country Life, 1780-1830, Oxford University Press, 1962.
Rory Knight Bruce, Red Letter Days: Hunting Across the British Isles, Quiller Publishing Ltd, 2008

Emma Griffin, Blood Sport: Hunting in Britain Since 1066, Yale University Press, 2007.

Anne Holland, Hunting: A Portrait, Little, Brown, 2003.

Hilda Kean, Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain since 1800, Reaktion Books, London, 1998.

Richard Mandell, Sport: A Cultural History, Columbia University Press, 1984.

Anthony Trollope, British Sports And Pastimes, Kessinger Publishing, 1868

A History of the Middleton hunt, written in the 1960s

BBC feature Fox Hunting: The Issues

Hunting Act 2004

Facts on Fox hunting

Jumping for fun

Point-to-point courses in Yorkshire

The League Against Cruel Sports

POWA - Protect Our Wild Animals

Icons: Interview with Ann Widdecombe

Submission to the Hunting Inquiry