Well worth a visit

Capt Ian Farquhar finds the Essex and Suffolk to be an ‘impressive show’ on his first trip to the region, as hounds run well with a really good cry

RINGING the changes, it was fascinating last week to go to East Anglia for the first time. I will confess I have never hunted in Essex or Suffolk before; somehow it seems not to be on the way to anywhere else. But recently I had been told firmly by friends that the Essex and Suffolk is a well-organised and efficiently run hunt that has some wilder country than you would expect, and that in addition the kennels were a very good set-up and worth seeing.

So, leaving in plenty of time, we set off-early last Friday to stay with one of the joint-masters, Gillie Cranfield, whose husband Richard happens also to be the very effective hunt chairman. They have a lovely house and the most charming Bedlington terrier/lurcher who I was informed spent too much time asleep — not a family failing!

The hunt’s origins go back to Sir William Rowley, master from 1791-1800. The Essex and Suffolk were united until 1921, when they split. During World War II the Essex part of the country ceased to operate, while the Suffolk half carried on; the two packs reunited in 1946 when they moved into the kennels at Layham, where they still are today.

The country is approximately 25 miles north to south and similarly east to west covering an area from the Clacton/Frinton coastline in the south, north up to Debenham, Ipswich to the east and Sudbury to the west. It is mainly plough and light arable and has always been very well supported by major landowners and farmers including the Aldouses, the Pauls and more recently the Buckles.