Hunter Fact File

Richard Lloyd

Sir Watkin William-Wynn’s (aka the Wynnstay) Foxhounds

I could ride before I could walk. Father (Gordon) and mother (Maureen) farmed 120 acres with cattle and sheep in the Wynnstay country. They also ran an equine stud: thoroughbreds and welsh mountain ponies; they also ran a livery yard on the farm - 12-14 horses, for local hunting people.

Father was a keen hunting man, and he helped turn hounds to the then Wynnstay huntsman Charlie Wilken. The Wynnstay kennels are only two fields from our family farm, and from 12 years old I was helping out at kennels - when I wasn’t busy on the farm. The great huntsman Bill Lander had moved there then, from 1970 until 1980, when Bert Loud took over; and who is still there.

The Wynnstay then was an all grass country. Now there’s a lot of plough and maize; we’d never heard of maize back then. It was a three-day-a-week pack: Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and you could take your own line, although it was a big country to jump. We’d get 100 riders on Saturdays, with 60 most week days.

I’d been hunting with them since I was a 3 years old. We always had ponies to hunt, which at the end of the season were turned out, and we had show ponies all summer: 12.2hh, 13.2hh and 14.2hh. We came home from school, and me, my brother Nigel, and my sister Denise, would work with the ponies. Nigel now runs the family farm, and Denise married the master’s son Neil Wooler and moved away.

As a boy, I can remember being with my father at a farmhouse after hunting, where they were all trying to blow a hunting horn. I picked it up and managed a few notes out of it, and I remember saying to my father on the way home - I wanted a hunting horn for my birthday. It duly appeared, and I still have that horn today.

When I was about 14, I’d got to know the Wynnstay hunt staff well, and started going up front with Bill Lander to open gates, etc. When I left school I wanted to go into hunt service, but it was July and all hunt staff changes had gone on 1 May. So the school gave me a job for the interim months looking after the school grounds. Later that year, Bill Lander came and said the whipper-in’s job at the Wynnstay was coming up - Did I want it? Of course I said yes. I was 16 at the time. They had a big flesh round at the kennels then, but I’d been helping out there since I was 14, so I could already skin and knew the ropes. And I’d plenty of background with horses.

Richard Lloyd: an excellent
rider across any hunting country

At that time the Wynnstay had a professional kennel-man Bob Whatmore, who helped me along and taught me a lot. He was a hell of a worker, yet he never came out hunting. While we were hunting he’d be out collecting around the farms, and when we got back from hunting I’d help him skinning until late.  We pulled the big hides off with a vehicle, and had a car starter motor and battery set up to pull the calf skins off. We didn’t get much sheep in those days, mainly cows, calves and horses.

Bill Lander was a great huntsman but a hard man, so it was steep learning curve, and he taught me a lot: both in kennels, and out in the hunting field. He taught me a great deal about foxhunting. His whipper-ins were never allowed with him when hounds running and we were crossing the country - he always had his whips a field or so to the right and left of him. And he always had a gate opener with him.

I remember one day hounds were screaming and he wanted his second horse; he shouted: “look lively man,” to the second horseman, leapt on his next horse, turned and off the road - jumped a great big hedge with ease. And he was away.

It’s a clay area, so you needed a ¾ bred horse. A lot of the dingles and big woods we had to get down into meant your scarlet coat would be covered in red clay by night fall. Most of the hedges had big ditches either in front or behind, so you really had to kick-on into them and get plenty of clearance on the landing side.

We’d start autumn hunting in the last week of July, and we’d hunt five mornings per week; start at daybreak and finish around 10am. We’d hack on most mornings with hounds. The same terrier man Paul Connoly is still with the Wynnstay.

Next came three years at the Albrighton Woodland as whipper-in to huntsman Eric Waldron. Their country is dissected with roads, roads and more roads. Bill Lander said if you go down there you’d better take a Lolly Pop: I didn’t understand what he meant, but I quickly got it. You needed to be a lolly pop man as you were forever galloping up down road verges and seeing hounds across the roads. There’s some nice bits in the middle of the AW country, but you were always worried about the big urban areas like Wolverhampton, and the busy areas around Kidderminster.

Hounds would get going, and you just knew there would be a road coming up after three or four fields, and you had to get down quickly to see them across. Eric was a clever man, a good huntsman. He’d come from a plough country, and had his hounds very tight to him and biddable. He was a good hound man.

It too was a big flesh country: the two of us had to do the horses when we came in from hunting, as well as the hounds, and probably also have to start skinning. It was hard work.

There were piles of flesh, and it was skin, skin, skin. Non-hunting days, we did the kennels and exercised the horses; then it was out in the flesh wagon collecting fallen stock, back to kennels, and skin. Later afternoon, one of us would do the kennels while the other did the horses. Then it was skinning again until eight or nine o’clock.

It came time to move on, and I applied for the whip’s job at the Rufford Forest Harriers with huntsman Stan Worthington. I again asked Bill Lander’s advice about the harrier world? He said you want to go there as Stan Worthington is one of the best huntsmen you’ll ever learn off. I was to be first whip to this private pack owned by Lady Anne Bentinck.

Rufford Forest Harriers

For the interview, I arrived in the yard at the Rufford Forest with only rubber boots and a patched-up scarlet coat. I walked into the kennel yard for hat morning’s hunting and saw the line of leather boots and scarlet coats hung up in the valet’s room; not a piece of straw on the yard, and everywhere was immaculate. I thought - What have I come to? Having only been with foxhounds, I had the expectation the harriers world would be a bit of a downward step: how wrong I was.

Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck, who died on 29 December 2008 aged 92, was one of the richest landowners in Britain. Her father, 8th Duke of Portland, had no male heirs and the dukedom passed to a distant relative and eventually died out.

Owing to a legal arrangement by her grandfather, the 6th Duke, Lady Anne inherited the family fortune estimated at more than £150 million. A formidable figure and still riding at 90, she was a keen supporter of the Turf, and said to be a redoubtable custodian of her inheritance.

Lady Anne Bentinck

Alexandra Margaret Anne Cavendish-Bentinck was born on 16 September 1916, the elder of two daughters of the 7th Duke of Portland, KG, and his wife, Ivy Gordon-Lennox, a maid of honour to Queen Alexandra, and only daughter of Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox, son of the 6th Duke of Richmond and Gordon.

The Dukes of Portland were originally a Dutch family. Hans Willem Bentinck came over from Holland with William of Orange in 1670, and later became the 1st Earl of Portland. He was granted considerable lands: by 1883 the family owned 43,000 acres in Nottinghamshire, including Welbeck Abbey, and further land in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Worcestershire, Northumberland and Buckinghamshire.

They also had 118,000 acres in Scotland, including the Braemore and Langwell estates in Caithness, as well as considerable real estate in central London, with street names such as Bentinck Street, Portland Place, Harley Street and Welbeck Street.

A Colourful Family

Her grandfather, the 6th Duke, a younger half-brother of the Countess of Strathmore (mother of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother), was succeeded by his eccentric second cousin, who had a horror of being seen and so supervised the digging of a network of underground passages and rooms at Welbeck. These included a tunnel 1¼ miles long and wide enough for two carriages to pass. He hid in a few interlocking rooms in the west wing, with a trap door giving him access to his network of tunnels, which was at times worked on by more than 1,500 men.

The 7th Duke, Lady Anne's father, was known as "Chopper" for having built himself a wooden house to live in at Welbeck. He had no sons.

It is said that when Lady Anne was a debutante she refused the hand of Prince Charles of the Belgians, later briefly Prince Regent of Belgium, by remaining in bed when he arrived to pay his suit. It has also been said that when she wished to marry the 11th Duke of Leeds and her family refused to permit the union, she vowed never to marry anyone else. Indeed, she never did marry.

It was a private harrier pack - invitation only - which only hunted foxes, and we never had a blank day. Some days it would be only Lady Bentinck and the hunt staff: but you can do that when you own the hounds, the kennels, and all the land to hunt on. All good riding country, but then Lady Bentinck owned all the farms we crossed. She always hunted side-saddle with full habit.

There were two in kennels - myself and the huntsman; we had five horses which were looked after by two full time grooms. No terrier men. We earth stopped, and we caught foxes which kept the keepers and farmers on the estate happy. We had 25 couples in kennels, and Stan Worthington would hunt all the hounds that could go, other than being in season or injured. The horsebox took four horses and 25 couples of hounds to the meet. We always had a second horseman out; always double bridles, leather boots which had always been ‘boned’.

When I went there they asked me what kit I had: they sent me to their supplier for two pairs of cream breeches, one pair of buff breeches for exercise, and two scarlet coats made to measure. The following year - for the Hound Show season, I had another scarlet coat made, another pair of boots, another pair of breeches and new hat - which had to be kept for showing only. I still have all those today.

Stan Worthington had met with a bad fall when at the Zetland where his horse fell on him. They put pins in his legs, and he had several operations, and was told he would never ride again. Lady Anne employed him to look after her stud, and when the Rufford Forest huntsman suddenly died, Lady Anne said he would have to go up to the kennels and look after the Rufford hounds.
They chucked Stan on a horse, and he hunted hounds two days per week from then on: from 1973 to 1986, when he died. When I went for my day’s hunting on trial, Stan jumped a five-bar gate onto the road, trotted across the road, and jumped another five-bar gate off the road - and they had said he’d never ride again. I was with Stan at the Rufford Forest for seven seasons. First morning, on hound exercise, his first words to me were: “Lad, you know nothing - keep learning from day one.”

They Rufford Forest were stud book harriers and did well at the big hound shows, winning a lot of Championships. Hallboy ’81; Challenger ’76; Saddler ’83; many of the stallion hounds which have done so well in contemporary breeding all go back to Rufford Forest boodlines. We used mostly our own hounds, and for an out cross we used a bit of the Dunston: Dunston Ladbrook ’81 had come up to kennels, and we used a bit of Cambridge; and vice versa - both those packs used our stallion hounds.

When Stan Worthington suddenly died of a heart attack, Lady Anne said: “I’ve carried two huntsmen out in a coffin - and I’m not carrying any more out: she was then in her late 70’s, and decided to disband the hunt and hounds. It was January, and all the hunt staff jobs were taken, so Lady Anne invented me a job with the estate timber yard for a year so, until I could get back into hunting.

A lot of hounds had gone to the Rockwood Harriers, and they where looking for a kennel-huntsman. Mr John Loy, who was master and huntsman then, asked me if I’d take the job. With a lot of Rufford hounds going there, it seems a logical next move. While the Rufford hunted 90% foxes, the Rockwood hunted 90% hares, which was an interesting change over.

I was with the Rockwood three seasons. Mr Loy had a bad fall - broke six ribs and punctured a lung, so I hunted the hounds for the last season there. I wanted to hunt hounds: I’d heard the Pendle Forest & Craven job was coming up, and I applied straight away. Mr Bannister asked me to come across and meet us, and have a look around - that was 1989. I was offered the job, and have just completed 20 seasons with the PF&C.

Pendle Forest & Craven Harriers

Richard with the Pendle Forest & Craven Hounds

We began hunting the fox more here at the PF&C, as there are some big shooting estates here. We started late July, and we’d killed our first fox by Rydal Show time. When I first came here the hounds didn’t know much about hunting the fox, so got a few drafts from Braham Moor, and it was not long before our hounds were marking and all the rest of it.

But now, since the ban, we’ve had to teach them to hunt an artificial line, and do they go on it…it’s a mixture of fox piss from America and certain oils, and they scream along on it…

PF&C have always supported the Hound Shows, and Richards’ long experience with this side of hunting has paid dividends. Richard and his joint-masters have won 23 Peterborough Championships; taken three Supreme Championships at Lowther Hound Show; one Supreme Championship at Rydal, where they only began a Supreme Champion in the last few years. We won both Championships at Harrogate this year - the first year they have had harriers at that show.

We began hunting the fox more here at the PF&C, as there are some big shooting estates here. We started late July, and we’d killed our first fox by Rydal Show time. When I first came here the hounds didn’t know much about hunting the fox, so got a few drafts from Braham Moor, and it was not long before our hounds were marking and all the rest of it.
But now, since the ban, we’ve had to teach them to hunt an artificial line, and do they go on it…it’s a mixture of fox piss from America and certain oils, and they scream along on it…

PF&C have always supported the Hound Shows, and Richards’ long experience with this side of hunting has paid dividends. Richard and his joint-masters have won 23 Peterborough Championships; taken three Supreme Championships at Lowther Hound Show; one Supreme Championship at Rydal, where they only began a Supreme Champion in the last few years. We won both Championships at Harrogate this year - the first year they have had harriers at that show.

PF&C Lively ’09
Champion Harrier at Rydal 2009

PF&C Pander ’07
Supreme Champion Harrier at Peterborough 2008

All this is long before the ban. Breeding good hounds is a long, long journey, and takes a long time. We first went out to the Cotley, using Cotley Sailor ’87. We went to the Cotley to bring in some independence: when the pack lost the line - they’d come back to me, rather than cast themselves forward to look for the line. We took our best independent hound Damson ’87 to Cotley Sailor ’87: she gave us five couple of puppies and we kept them all. Every one of them hunted well, and their progeny have gone on to breed Championship winning hounds.

We’d got in touch with Mr Eames, joint-master of the Cotley, who suggested their Sailor ’87 as he was a stallion hound who had proved himself both in the hunting field and in the Hound Show rings; and his bloodlines ran back to PF&C Danger ’74.

The PF&C were heavy shouldered back then; 90% of their muscles work was pulling themselves up with their front end, rather than jumping up. So we used narrower doghounds on narrower bitches, and we now have a much more athletic hound. Our hounds we have now are fast, they can ping fences, and they take some living with on a good scenting day. Also our hounds can now last up to nine seasons, whereas before six seasons was the norm.

I aim for our doghounds to stand 21” to 22”; and the bitches to be 20” to 21”. Reason being is we have a log of big walls in our hunt country, and lots of wire, so we need hounds which can jump. The PF&C is a wet country, therefore a good scenting country; and it holds a scent. In the days before the hunting ban they could push their quarry so hard, they could produce a five miles point.

Halcyon days.

As told by Richard Lloyd