A vale day with the Kimblewick

The Kimblewick Hunt is something of a phenomenon of modern hunting. With a vast country that stretches across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hampshire, it did not come into being until 2010. Before that, it was the Vale of Aylesbury with Garth and South Berks, which in turn was an amalgamation of the Vale of Aylesbury and the Garth and South Berks. Dig back further, and these two packs were formed from the Old Berkeley, the Hertfordshire, the South Oxfordshire, the Garth and the South Berkshire.

In 2010 the hunt decided to name itself after the hamlet in which the Old Berkeley kennels are situated, Kimblewick. Hunt staff still wear the Old Berkeley livery of tawny yellow, a darker shade of the yellow livery of the Berkeley, a throwback to the days when the Earls of Berkeley used to hunt this country.

There are other reasons why this hunt is a phenomenon. During the 2016-17 season, it suffered some serious challenges to its pack. Others would have been deterred by such misfortune but not the Kimblewick; 18 months later, in the summer of 2018, it unveiled its newly renovated kennels. The pack