When our farmers went to London

It's the 75th anniversary of the Piccadilly Hunt ride. Matt Ramsden explains what the protest involved, and relates the tale of its recent celebration

- Catherine Austen

PROTESTING is all the rage these days. University campuses, town centres and stretches of tarmac are perpetually littered with unhappy people who air their grievances with such regularity that one forgets the point from each day to the next. In postwar Britain, with a country united in getting back on its feet, things were different.

People had been through so much and had far greater worries than stopping oil. Food production was at the forefront of the nation’s needs and while farmers were a minority, they were still a pivotal part of the political agenda. So a small group of men were to prove.

In February 1949, a private member’s bill to ban hunting was to be debated in the House of Commons. Rural England was naturally in uproar and although more than a million signatures against had been amassed by the British Field Sports Society, a band of farmers in the North Cotswolds and Severn Vale decided this wasn’t going to be enough.

They felt strongly that the proposed bill insulted their way of life, showed a lack of understanding and that a ban on hunting would contradict their modus operandi; to feed the British people. To be understood by those in power, the collective collaborated to go to London. Thus, the Piccadilly Hunt was formed.

The name did not achieve its significance until after the event; one that needed planning, police permission and the convictions of a minority who felt they were being persecuted. Harry Johnston and Geoffrey Milne, along with a few other kindred spirits, tentatively planned the trip, to act as representatives of the thousands who were in opposition to the bill.

As is so often the case when emotion rides high on a plan, things began to escalate and it was conceived that they’d ride horses through the streets to present the petition. Of course!