Dartmoor Hunt, Cornwood Common, 29.03.25

On the last Saturday of March, we joined Plymouth and West Devon Sabs and Hunt Audits Southwest to pay another visit to the Dartmoor Hunt at their meet at Cornwood Common (Heathfield Down). Huntsman Harry Gosling was accompanied by Spooners & West Dartmoor huntsman Charlie Andrews and South & West Wilts huntsman Archie Clifton-Brown (ex Stevenstone), as well as about 40 field riders and 2 equipped quadbikes.

The hunt entered the moor at West Rook Gate and proceeded to briefly draw the Ford Brook valley, before heading up over Penn Beacon where the pack split, with some heading down into Cholwich Town in cry and the rest running down the near vertical slopes of the flooded quarry pits of the nearby China Clay Works.

After faffing about here for a while, the hunt made their way north where they proceeded to trespass through the National Trust land on Lee Moor, where they hunted the valley at Hentor Meadow. Hounds briefly picking up on a line here before everyone moved off eastwards, across Langcombe Hill and into the valley at Erme Plains.

Our sabs caught up with the hunt lurking in the valley, with the equipped terrier quadbikes looking down from the top of the valley to the east. Hounds quickly picked up on a line and were witnessed chasing a fox westward, shortly before they caught up with, mauled, and killed the fox in full view of sabs from across the valley. This was all whilst Gosling was blowing his hunting horn to encourage the hounds in their pursuit.

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Dartmoor Hunt, South Brent, 22.03.25

We joined up with Plymouth and West Devon Sabs, and Hunt Audits Southwest to visit the Dartmoor hunt at their miserable roadside meet near Bloody Pool, South Brent. After waiting for Terrierman Alex Wass to arrive and scoffing down as many sausage rolls as they could squeeze down their throats, the hunt set off and headed towards Gidley Bridge, and into Dockwell Plantation.

With sabs positioned all around, huntsman Harry Gosling drew the hounds through the plantation. It was here a fox was seen taking refuge in a patch of gorse near sabs. Thankfully the hounds never picked up the line and, due to the thick fog, the hunt had no clue either.

From the plantation, the hunt entered the moor and set off south west in the direction of Dockwell Ridge. It wasn’t long before hounds were heard in cry around Shipley Tor and a dog walker reported that hounds had chased a fox across Dartmoor Way.

It was at this point everything started to go wrong for Gosling, as when he crossed onto Black Tor, he only appeared to have a fraction of the pack. In the thick fog he struggled to even maintain this level.

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Two Bridges Hunt Club, Dartmoor, 19.02.25

Twenty years on from the birth of the Hunting Act, sabs are still defending wildlife.

Yesterday we sabbed the Two Bridges Hunt Club meet on Dartmoor. This is the annual gathering of the four Dartmoor hunts (the Mid Devon, South Devon, Dartmoor, and Spooners & West Dartmoor hunts) to mark the anniversary of the Hunting Act. Essentially, it’s the hunts sticking two fingers up at the law and proclaiming that Dartmoor is their private playground. Many walkers and visitors to the moors were less than pleased to see them and to find the Postbridge road blocked with hunt traffic. It was nice to receive thanks from members of the public for standing up to these wildlife criminals. Predictably, no police were present and it was left to sabs to stop foxes from being killed, as has always been the case.

The hunts met at the East Dart Inn at Postbridge. We attended alongside Plymouth & West Devon Hunt Sabs, Mendip Hunt Sabs and South Devon Hunt Sabs. This year it was the Mid Devon Hunt’s turn to bring their hounds. In dense fog the hunts set off to the north, taking the bridlepath next to the Dartmoor visitor centre in direction of Broadun Round. They drew the gorse-covered slopes on both sides of the East Dart River, under the watchful eyes of our sabs who intervened to rate the hounds when they picked up on scent.

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Two Bridges Hunt Club, Dartmoor, 21.02.24

Before the Hunting Act was passed around 50,000 members and supporters of hunting signed the Hunting Declaration, in which they pledged to break the law if hunting was banned. Every week for the past twenty years since the Hunting Act was passed that’s exactly what hunts up and down the country have been doing. Despite a law that bans it, our wildlife continues to be illegally hunted and killed, largely because landowners like Dartmoor National Park, the Duchy of Cornwall, the MOD, Forestry England and other major private landowners continue to turn a blind eye to the blatant illegal hunting happening on their (our!) land.

The Two Bridges Hunt Club, formed of the four Dartmoor hunts (the South Devon, Mid Devon, Dartmoor, and Spooner’s & West Dartmoor) meet around this time every year to mark the anniversary of the ban coming into effect and stick two fingers up at the Hunting Act. This week was no exception.

After backlash from previous years, the Two Bridges Hotel stated that they were not hosting the joint meet of the four Devon hunts this year. However, they were happy to host the fox killers at a pre-hunt dinner the night before.

Instead the hunts met at the East Dart Hotel at Postbridge, Dartmoor, with horse trailers even unboxing in the Dartmoor National Park tourist information car park. It seems this four hunt joint meet could only muster around thirty riders between them.

We were joined by sabs from other south-west groups: Plymouth and West Devon Sabs, North Dorset Sabs, Somerset Sabs, Wiltshire Sabs, Mendip Sabs, South Devon Hunt Sabs and South Devon Animal Rights.

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Dartmoor Hunt Opening Meet , Monksmoor, Bittaford,15.10.22

We sabbed the Dartmoor Hunt’s opening meet at Monksmoor on the edge of Bittaford.

The hunt headed straight for the Wrangaton Golf Club via Leigh Lane and then spent the new few hours bumping into our various foot teams who were strategically positioned across several miles of open moorland.

Sabbing on Dartmoor is pretty tough. It requires a huge amount of stamina and in order to keep up with the hunt, who are using horses and quadbikes, we have to think well ahead of their likely movements. The planning paid off and for the first four hours the hunt were never far from one of our three foot teams.

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Dartmoor Hunt, Wrangaton Farm, 11.08.2020

This Tuesday saw us out with the Dartmoor hunt for their first cubbing meet of the season.
They were less than impressed to see us and to be filmed immediately as they left the kennels.

As they headed up onto the moor near Wrangaton golf club the riders and support surrounded a patch of gorse whilst huntsman Harry Gosling encouraged hounds to pick up the scent of a fox. Mark Warnett who is usually their terrierman was filmed slapping his thigh along with other foot followers who were making noise to scare any fox back towards the hounds.

This is textbook cub hunting tactics and ensures the fox cannot escape meaning a quick kill for the pack, thus giving the young hounds experience and a taste for blood. More foxes are killed at this time of the year than during the whole of the main season which starts in November.

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Spooners and West Dartmoor Hunt, Long Plantation, Princetown. Dartmoor Hunt, Dunnabridge Farm. 03.03.2020

This Tuesday a small team of us with the help of a friend from South Devon Animal Rights decided to visit Dartmoor to see what the hunts were up to.

We chose to keep eyes on the Spooners and West Dartmoor hunt first. Their meet was at Long Plantation near Princetown, the host being their own field master Martin Allison. A relatively small affair with a lack of support and riders.

Long term follower Mary Alford, who’s son Daniel is incidentally a director of the badger cull in this area, was busy scowling at us: http://innocentbadger.com/cull-zones/badger-cull-company-directors-revealed/

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Four Dartmoor Hunts, Two Bridges Hotel, 19.02.2020

On Wednesday we teamed up with sabs from SDAR, Guildford and Norfolk to sab the traditional ‘commiseration of the hunting ban’ meet of the four Dartmoor hunts: Dartmoor, Mid Devon, South Devon and Spooners. We couldn’t however see any sign of the Spooners on the day. We’d heard that they’d been hunting and digging out the day before in the Princetown area, so perhaps there has been a falling out between them and the other hunts?

Mid Devon huntsman Duncan Hume was hunting his hounds, Robert Medcalf huntsman from South Devon was out as were the two Harrys from the Dartmoor hunt, Gosling the huntsman and Cook his whip.

The hunt met at the Two Bridge’s hotel and were met by a great group of protesters from Devon Against Hunting, and Action Against Foxhunting. News reporters from ITV were also present and interviewed the hunt who gave their usual trail hunt lies nonsense.

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