Chase moves from hounds to otters

A CENTURY ago, there must have been hundreds of hounds charging around the Darlington district in pursuit of small animals.

Echo Memories told last week of the Hurworth Hunt, which was formed 200 years ago in, confusingly, Neasham.

It chased foxes to the south and east of Darlington. Foxes to the north were chased by the South Durham Hunt, which was founded in 1870; foxes to the west were chased by the Zetland Hunt, which was founded in 1866.

Then there was the Neasham Otter Hounds, which were owned by Thomas Wilkinson, of Neasham Abbey - a descendant of the Thomas Wilkinson who formed the Hurworth Hunt in 1803.

From 1877, Mr Wilkinson hunted otters with his hounds in rivers all over the North-East, and there is a splendid painting of the pack in action in Wallington Hall in Northumberland (a sepia etching of the picture hung until recently in the Station pub, in Hurworth Place).

Mr Wilkinson's otter hunting days came to an end in 1900. He died from a severe chill which he caught while out hunting.

There was also the Croft Spa Beagles which chased hares. Formed in 1928, this pack of 29 hounds (or 141/2 couple as they say in hunting circles) was kennelled at Monkend, in the village of Croft.

In the 1931-32 season, the Croft Spa Beagles held 33 meets in the south Durham area. Plus, there was the Darlington Foot Harriers, whose hounds were kennelled, naturally, in Houndgate in Darlington.

There had been hounds in Houndgate since time immemorial. They were kept as protection in ancient times - boisterous Scots were less likely to raid a town if they knew they could get badly bitten - and to aid the sport of bull-baiting.

Bulls were tethered to a metal ring set in a wall in Bull Wynd, and were baited in the Market Place. This practice stopped slightly before 1800.

The last baiting was a bit of a half-hearted effort performed by a birdcatcher named Robin Gascoigne. He started well enough, decorating both himself and the "valiant brute" with a gallant array of blue ribbons.

He rode on the bull from Post House Wynd to the Market Place where, to the disappointment of all concerned, it turned out to be "a very stupid obstinate animal, and there was no fun".

Once bull-baiting was deemed an "inhuman sport", the hounds of Houndgate had their attention turned to hares.

Their heyday was from 1871 to 1889, under the mastership of a Thomas Watson (who does not appear to have been related to the famous auctioneer), in which time 1,042 hares were killed. The statistics were kept as if it was cricket - record season: 1888, 112 hares killed - and the dogs were held in the awe that small boys now reserve for footballers.

"Crowner was a leading hound, full of dash and courage," said a newspaper report in 1889.

"Corporal has been a wonderfully good all-round hound, a clinker on a road, and many a good hare has owed to him her death; Little Villager has been a wonder, always there and doubly there at a check, ready to unravel the knotty point."

But Violet was the star of the show.

"Violet was a wonderfully fine, pure-bred hound, and for several seasons not a hound could follow her; she could stay a whole day, and many were the instances in which she manifested her gameness and bottom," said the report.

It was a dangerous business, though, being a hound.

"Once, the pack was running a hare down the railway line at Croft when an express train dashed up and ran through them," said the newspaper.

"Gainful was found on the line, apparently dead. She was picked up and placed at the side of the rails, and the hounds and master went on after the hare.

"On returning to the spot, it was found that poor Gainful had got to her feet; a platelayer having tied a string round her neck and taken her to his cabin."

Gainful's tail had been cut off at the root, and it wasn't thought she could survive. But liberal applications of Vaseline to her injury enabled her to miraculously pull through, and she carried on hunting for another five seasons.

Thomas Watson retired in 1889, when all of Darlington's leading men turned out to salute him at a sportsman's dinner in the Fleece Hotel. He sold his hounds to a man in Basingstoke, and for a couple of years, Darlington's foot harriers appear to have been houndless.

However, records suggest that in the early years of the 20th Century hounds returned to Houndgate and, as with the Croft Spa Beagles, they terrorised the hares of the district until well into the 1930s.

THE Hurworth Hunt celebrated its bicentenary yesterday by meeting at Neasham Abbey, the home of its founder, Thomas Wilkinson.

The abbey is the first building you come across on the riverside as you enter Neasham, from Hurworth.

Lord Dacre, Baron of Greystock, began building a priory dedicated to the Virgin Mary on this spot in 1203. The priory soon had eight Benedictine nuns who elected their own prioress - there is a carved memorial to Dame Elizabeth, who was prioress from 1488 to 1499, in the church at Haughton-le-Skerne.

In 1534, at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, three of Henry VIII's men arrived in Neasham and, with the hired help of villagers, demolished the priory. This made five nuns homeless, although the prioress, Jane Lawson, appears to have been allowed to keep the land.

Neasham Abbey was built on the site of the priory in the 17th Century.

A piece of the priory remains: a 12th or 13th Century carved stone which was once part of a cross.

Its front face has a scene from the crucifixion on it; its back face has three draped figures on it. On one side is a Latin inscription; on the other is a pilgrim with a staff.

Until 1991 the stone was outside in the grounds of a large house in Neasham, but it was then presented to the Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, where it is today.

If you have any information on any of the subjects in this column, please write to Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, or e-mail chris.lloyd

Published: 05/02/2003

Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, e-mail chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505062.