evidence that threatens to turn the history of hunting on its head has been uncovered by an eminent North-East historian.

Author Richard Almond has discovered that throughout the Middle Ages, hunting - long assumed to be a pursuit reserved for aristocratic noblemen - was in fact just as popular with peasants and, most remarkably of all, women.

Mr Almond, one of the country's foremost experts in the history of field sports, made the discovery during 11 years of exhaustive research for his latest book, Medieval Hunting, which has just been published.

While popular mythology may be filled with images of evil aristocrats galloping after stags and lopping the hands off serfs caught poaching on their lands, Mr Almond claims that peasants were just as likely to be doing the hunting as the lords of the manor.

At the weekend, he was joined by members of the Zetland Hunt at a book signing at The Crown pub in Manfield, near Darlington.

His findings are likely to be seized upon by the pro-hunting lobby to back their case for keeping the sport - something Mr Almond, a former huntsman and keen angler, who lives in Richmond, North Yorkshire, is comfortable with.

"It is still said that hunting is an upper class sport, but it's not - it's part of our cultural heritage," he said.

Mr Almond, a senior lecturer at Darlington College of Technology, found the most compelling evidence for his theory in pictorial sources.

There among the illuminated manuscripts, painting and tapestries gathered from across England and continental Europe was unmistakable evidence of common men - and women - joining the hunt.

"Women are there," he said. "They may be in the background, but they are there.

"Hunting took place throughout all sections of society and that is something which has been completely ignored by historians."

l Medieval Hunting has already been entered for next year's Wolfson History Prize. It is published by Sutton Publishing and is available at most bookstores priced £20.