Hunting around the Wilts & Berks Canal

The Western Daily Press ran a weekly column on Hunting in the 1930s (and probably before as well). Some of the Hunt meetings strayed on to the then-derelict Wilts & Berks Canal, as detailed in the following articles.

The Great Western Main Line wasn't necessarily a barrier to the Hunt, but as yet there's no proof whether train drivers stopped their trains to allow the hunt across as happened in Berkshire even in the 1930s!

By the 1930s voices were beginning to be raised against fox-hunting, but in country areas they were drowned out by a general acceptance of hunting as both an active sport as well as for spectators who followed on foot.

The reporters tended to give themselves pseudonyms such as 'Pilgrim' in the Western Daily Press, and 'Wryneck' in the Reading Mercury.

Related Articles

1932: The Duke's Hounds

1932: Around Corsham

1934: A foxhunt among the Army manoeuvres

1938: Duke's Meet at East Tytherton

1939: Around Bremhill