‘A part of the community’
catherine.austen@futurenet.com
IF you were asked to name five hunts in Britain without a railway line, dual carriageway, motorway or large town or city, you might struggle a bit. They do exist, however, and the West Percy in North Northumberland is one of them, hunting two days a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, in one of England’s most unpopulated areas.
Anyone from further down the country who has hunted in and around housing and industrial estates, within earshot of motorways and mainline trains, would look enviously at this mixture of permanent pasture and hill ground. The West Percy country has just one A road to contend with and no railway lines. The lack of hazards, people and hustle and bustle is like much of rural Britain 20 or 30 years ago.
THE MASTERS
THE mastership of the West Percy is blessed with a good combination of youth and experience. Alastair Graham, a farmer from the south of the country, has hunted the hounds for the past two
