SUPPORTERS of the newly amalgamated Herefordshire and Clifton Hunt lined the streets of Leominster as the traditional Boxing Day meet took place.

Despite spitting rain, the sun mainly shone and the hunt was applauded as chairman Tim Hinton addressed the crowd.

It appeared to be a good turnout in Corn Square, with families and couples among those in the crowd.

Mr Hinton said it was fantastic to see so many people and stressed to those in attendance that a trail had been laid and would continue to be laid throughout the day, with fox hunting outlawed in the 2000s.

RELATED NEWS:

Cafes in the town were busy after the meet, with several people walking around with drinks from Coffee #1, and the Rankin Club providing drinks for the hunt.

Mr Hinton also said hunting was about more than a day out in the countryside, with pony clubs and point-to-points also an integral part.

The atmosphere was friendly and peaceful, with the hounds – which spend the first year of their lives in farmhouses – walking among the crowds.

Despite the support in Leominster, groups such as the League Against Cruel Sports say they have been campaigning to “expose” trail hunting for years.

The league said hunts in England and Wales “invented” the activity of trail hunting after the fox hunting ban came in.

The organisation said that this claims to be a non-lethal sport where the hunt simply follows a pre-laid trail rather than searching for and chasing a fox.

But it said years of evidence showed that hunts were using trail hunting as a cover for illegal fox hunting.

But the Hunting Office, the sport’s governing body, said refutes such allegations.

“Due to the persistent spurious allegations from our opponents that hunts are not trail hunting, the presence of saboteurs trying to intentionally disrupt the legal activities, hunts record and keep evidence of their trail laying and files are kept of the day’s activities,” a spokesperson said.