On Saturday a small team of sabs responded to a tipoff that the Eggesford Hunt would be meeting at another mid Devon pub: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗻, 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗕𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽. As with the Duke of York in Iddesleigh (who host their Christmas Eve meet) and the Waie Inn in Zeal Monachorum (who host not only meets but also balls and fundraising events for this hunt), locals who oppose animal cruelty and wildlife crime might want to consider taking their business elsewhere.
One of Eggesford Hunt’s main terriermen, Seward Folland, who has a conviction for trying to dig a fox from a badger sett after hounds had chased the fox to ground, was in attendance at this meet. With him was Richard Elliott and the usual group of clowns on quadbikes. Seward and Richard’s quadbikes were equipped with spades and terriers for digging-out.
The hunt set off through the village and headed north towards Bishopsleigh. A fox was chased across the road to the west. Having anticipated that this might happen, we’d already positioned a foot team to get ahead and track their movements from a vantage point on a hill as the hounds carried on west in direction of Waterpark Wood. Another foot team was in the valley with the hounds, rating them off the scent of not one but two foxes who were seen shortly after running across a field. This is the time of year when foxes begin to pair up, so it’s not uncommon to see two in close proximity. It’s all the more devastating when one is killed and the other survives – something we caught on film very recently. This is currently the subject of a police investigation, so we’ll be sharing more information on that and several other ongoing police investigations when it’s sensible to do so.
Watching on, the farmer at Deneridge Farm mistook one of our sabs for a hunt follower. This led to an interesting conversation in which he said “well let’s hope they catch something today”. Fortunately, both foxes were able to safely get away thanks to sab intervention, although one looked exhausted. The hunt carried on south and then looped back around to the north-east towards Bishopsleigh and then Hele Barton Farm.
Sabs caught up with the hounds again near Canns Mill bridge. This is a location that is well-known to us from previous occasions. A nearby badger sett bears the scars of many past digouts by this hunt, several of which we were able to intervene in. One of these instances is captured here: https://www.facebook.com/devoncountyhuntsaboteurs/videos/1445845815523782 Knowing that foxes often take refuge in this sett and the hunt would be eager to dig the fox out if they thought sabs weren’t watching, a foot team made a beeline for the sett. Sure enough, they found several sett entrances covered in fresh hound prints and one set of horse hoof prints going down to the sett. The hound prints are the result of ‘marking’ – when hounds scratch at a sett entrance to indicate that a fox has gone to ground there. Fortunately, on this occasion our presence averted a digout.
The final draw was an embarrassing flop for Jason. Hounds were cast into dense scrub next to Mears Farm and instantly began speaking. However, the combination of sabs rating the hounds and someone (possibly the landowner) shouting at Jason to ‘get out’ caused the hunt to make a hasty retreat. Hounds were called back to the road and the assembled hunt hacked back to Lowertown on the edge of Morchard Bishop, where they boxed up. Terrierman Seward Folland was still seen lurking on his quadbike a couple of fields away from the marked sett after the hunt had packed up, clearly itching for an opportunity to get to the sett.
Throughout the day, sabs kept an eye on known setts in the area to ensure they weren’t being dug out. Although we’re unable to say more about it at this stage, this is the third time in a month that we caught Eggesford Hunt terriermen up to their usual tricks… Keep an eye on our page for updates in the coming months.
In the wake of the government’s recent announcement around agricultural inheritance tax we have received a lot of comments on our page denying any direct link between farming and hunting. Understandably, the image of farmers as hard-working, self-sacrificing folk and stewards of the land doesn’t sit easily with the reality that many invite fox hunters and badger diggers onto their land to terrorise wildlife for ‘sport’. Some even find time in amongst their busy farming schedule to ride to hounds or follow on foot 3 days a week. However, that IS the reality, and going forward we’ll be making more of a point of exposing the tight links between Devon’s hunting and farming communities. There’s no denying that there are MANY farmers in Devon who can’t stand the hunt and we applaud those who stand up to them. However, Devon’s hunts wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the involvement of farmers at every level from terrierman to follower, rider, Master and landowner.
Although the Eggesford have plenty of farming members, here we’ll highlight just a few who can be seen in our photos and who attend most meets: riders Hugh Trerise, Duncan Tucker, Lloyd Heard and John Quick are all farmers. Convicted terrierman Seward Folland is also a farmer. And all the landowners whose coverts the Eggesford hunted on Saturday are farmers. In this particular instance, the land they hunted was mostly owned by the Gillbards. Bishopsleigh is owned by farmer David Gillbard, who is also one of the directors of the badger cull company JRD Westcountry. They – along with the 90% of landowners who signed up to the badger cull (that’s the minimum figure the zone requires to get a licence) – are responsible for the pointless and indiscriminate killing of thousands of badgers in this area in recent years, something which Seward Folland directly participated in at the time, until his licence was removed following his conviction. Deneridge Farm is owned by another farming Gillbard, as is Hele Barton. Alongside advertising their farm cottages, the Hele Barton website boasts that they “have always farmed to enhance the habitat, latterly including the stewardship of environmental schemes, which helps to create and maintain habitats for wildlife”. If you’re considering a farm holiday in mid Devon, it might be worth asking Paul and Carolyn Gillbard why – if they genuinely want to promote wildlife and not just attract another nice source of taxpayers’ subsidies – they would allow foxhunters and convicted badger diggers to hunt on their land. It’s no good saying “but most of the landowners are not actively involved in the hunting”. They are complicit, and without access to their land the hunt wouldn’t be able to function.
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