One Tough Chap

Frank Houghton Brown meets hunting’s octagenarian optimist, Michael Bannister, and finds his zest for the sport undimmed.

AT 83 years old and after 39 years in office as joint-master of the Pendle Forest and Craven Harriers, Michael Bannister’s eyes still shine as brightly as ever when he talks about his life.

In his lovely home in front of the lake at Coniston in North Yorkshire, the words “lucky” and “privileged” are the ones he most often uses.

His long-standing joint-master Jane Pighills describes him as “the most wonderful optimist”.

“If the going is bottomless then Michael thinks it’s ‘top of the ground’; if the water is a foot deep in the gateway, Michael thinks you will only get your toes wet,” she says.

Michael is as slim and dapper as ever; in fact he points out that he is a stone lighter now than when he left the Cold stream Guards in his 20s. He still hunts on a horse most days and is in the gym at the hotel he owns at 6.15am every morning.

“I first hunted as a boy before the war, with the Craven Harriers [who amalgamated with the Pendle Forest Harriers in 1947],” Michael remembers. “My father was on the hunt committee and our chauffeur Bob would drop me off at the meet. I was just 11 or 12 and I would follow on foot all day. It was the best way of learning the country and how to get around.”

“I am a pure-bred Lancastrian,” admits Michael, “but I bought the estate at Coniston in North Yorkshire in 1969. I pulled down the big house and built a much smaller new one on the site,” he says as he points out where the Stowe Beagles once ran right through the house.