FOX hunting has few friends in the national media, which is more than happy to demonise hunts as gatherings of bloodthirsty rural folk who would be happy to rip the fox apart with their own teeth.

So when the Government began making noises about banning blood sports in 1999, Stockton-based photographer and former Bilsdale hunt member Andy Elliott picked up his camera and sprang to their defence.

He spent 2 years following hunts across North Yorkshire and the North-East, including the Bilsdale, Cleveland, Farndale, Hurworth, Goathland and the South Durham. He also recorded the Countryside rally in Newcastle in 1999 and events such as Bilsdale Show.

The results have been published in a book called Golden Thread, after the legendary, almost magical powers that expert huntsmen use to control their hounds. But its author says the title is equally a metaphor for the toleration that should exist in a democratic society.

"It was intended to be a plea to people to think about things before they form opinions," he said. "I am pro-hunting but I am also pro the democratic process working freely.

"I believe in everybody having their say, including anti-hunt people. If they feel strongly about something then of course they must protest. Rather than this being a bit of back door policy by the Government to please its backers, it needs to be put in the public arena and properly discussed, not just for fox hunting but for any piece of legislation."

A passage accompanying a picture of the Cleveland Hunt in October 1999 sums up how he feels the hunting fraternity has been ignored. It reads: "Democracy has to work for everybody, including those that we don't like personally. The road to Hell is signposted very clearly. The road to Kildale obviously isn't."

He hunted with the Bilsdale in the mid-Eighties but had to give it up due to family commitments. His interest in the subject was sparked again when the government introduced its anti-fox hunting Bill in 1999. "The government was making noises about banning it, so I wanted to take pictures in case I never saw it again. Nobody knows what is going to happen and the time to make a record of something is while it still exists. It is too late afterwards."

The photographs were intended for an exhibition, but he struggled to find a venue and was told more than once that fox hunting was not an appropriate subject. Redcar and Cleveland Council eventually agreed to hold the exhibition at the Margrove Heritage Centre last year, where it attracted about 1,500 visitors.

In the climate of suspicion that surrounded the media at the time, it must have taken a bold man to turn up at hunt meetings with a camera and he admits some hunts were more welcoming than others. "All hunts have a different personality. I have known the Bilsdale for a long time and they were fine, though there is a degree of suspicion when you pick a camera up.

"But the Cleveland Hunt had a meeting at which a man asked how they knew I was not a spy from the Daily Mirror!

"Having been regularly publicly criticised, if anything they have turned inwards rather than defend themselves, which has weakened their cause, making them less publicly accountable.

"That is generated by fear. If hunting wants to be understood, it has to make the public welcome. Anybody that wants to should be able to go along."

Alongside the shots of hunting people, the book contains something not immediately associated with the farming community - poetry. "I wanted to soften the book and make it more oblique, which is why the landscape shots are in there as well," he said.

"When you get 2 years into a subject, you start forming bits and pieces in your head and the only way you can discharge them is to write them down. When I looked at them again, I realised they said exactly what I wanted to say, so it wrote itself."

When it was published at the beginning of this year, the book sold more than 100 copies in three weeks. "The feedback I get from the farmers is they don't read the words but they like the pictures! But they are parting with their money, so they must like something about it."

This drive to record a passing or threatened world is a thread that runs throughout his work. His next project will involve interviewing farmers hit by foot-and-mouth disease. "I want to record what is left of that memory," he said.

"The Countryside Alliance banners' slogan used to be 'Listen to us'. The only way of getting anyone to listen to you is to be prepared to say something so the intent is to write these experiences down."

A desire to record his home town has led to another exhibition later this year. "For five years, from 1995-1999, I went out one day a week and took pictures of Stockton. By complete accident, what I photographed was everything that the council has demolished as part of its regeneration of the town."

The exhibition, entitled Norton Road after the area it covers, again concentrates on everyday people in everyday locations such as pubs, houses and at work.

"I don't think photography is an art form. I don't think it is strong enough or interesting enough," he said. "But it can be a very good means of recording something. It is a snatch of a moment and hopefully the viewer will understand that. Photography is the closest thing that we have to a time machine."

Golden Thread is available by ringing 01642 363814.

The Norton Road exhibition goes on show at the Photographic Gallery, Stockton, on March 29.