THINK of hunting in the Cotswolds and you’ll most likely conjure up scenes of the North Cotswold trotting through Broadway or the Cotswold flying stone walls. However, there is another pack that bears that honoured name: the Cotswold Vale Farmers (CVF). Formed in 1947 from the Cotswold, when that hunt grew too large to manage, and now extended by the former South Herefordshire country, it covers an enchanted stretch of rural England that runs from south of Cheltenham to the Welsh border.
Last Season there was a young and eager new Mastership in place that has since undergone a wholesale change for this Season, but The Field visited and caught the enthusiasm of the new incumbents prior to the shift of Mastership.
When we met at Great Demesne, Garway, home of then Joint Master Cheryl Sparey and her husband, Bill, the Meet was enchanted indeed. It had rained all the day before and rained all the following day, but the sky was clear as we gathered for a grand breakfast in the farmhouse, with that shimmering, champagne light that characterises a perfect autumn day.
