Home Page Hunt History The Country News & events The Hounds The etiquette of hunting Glossary of hunting terms Merchandising The Jorrocks Hunt Club Contacts & useful links	The Hunt Country Following the amalgamation of the two hunts, we now have a very large country, although unfortunately a lot of it is unhuntable as a result of the inexorable encroachement of roads and railways and the general urbanisation of the countryside. When Jack Champion started hunting hounds in 1947, there were only four people to warn between South Park and Four Elms - there are now over seventy for the same days hunting! The hunt country runs roughly from the M23 in the west to Hadlow in the east, and from the Isle of Grain in the north down to Fletching in the south. This is an area of approximately 42 miles east to west by 30 miles north to south. The landscape ranges from the marshes around St. Mary Hoo, across the chalk of the North Downs, into the High Weald of Kent and down onto Ashdown Forest. The going ranges from free draining sand to the heavy Gault clay, the scenery from the open heathland of Ashdown to the conifer plantations of Sheffield Forest and to the Thames Estuary Hunt Jumps We have built many hundreds of jumps over the years, varying from full-blown hedges to Tiger traps over ditches to removable slip gates. Whilst it is a lot of fun to jump between fields, the main purpose of our jumps is to help us get about the country quickly when hounds are running. We are not a drag hunt with the sole purpose of jumping fast and furious - indeed we have several regular followers who never jump, and there is always a way to get around without leaving the ground if you don't want to. There are also hunting days where we do not do a single jump. Countryside Management The British countryside as we see it today is the result of thousands of years of management by man. Farming practices have shaped the landscape, as has hunting over the past several hundred years. A "forest" strictly speaking is not a wooded area, but an area of land that was set aside for the purposes of hunting. A very good example in our hunt country is Ashdown Forest - this is not a heavily wooded area and was once the hunting ground of kings. Though we no longer hunt the Fallow deer here we still enjoy several days hunting every season. With the development of foxhunting and growth of shooting as a sport, woodland and other management has developed to improve habitats for quarry species. This has had a positive impact on the local biodiversity, benefiting both the fauna and flora by positive management. Those of us who work on and with the land know how to get the best from it without being told by an urban-based government. In France, hunts are allocated a set number of stags to kill each year and issued a licence by the government. If they fail to achieve their quota they are fined! This is based on the fact that their managers know how to properly look after what they have, they understand the ecological processes involved, and how important the social and economic aspects of the sport are. Consequently the French countryside is in a far healthier state than ours, as far as wildlife is concerned. Meets Nearly every meet we have is either a Lawn Meet or a Boot Meet. Lawn meets are given to us at the start of the day by the landowner, and include normally copious amounts of food and liquid refreshement of varying degrees of alcholic strength! Boot meets are just as they say - out of the boot of a car or the ramp of a lorry. This is all a very important part of the community we are part of. Parking at meets is varied - sometimes everybody can park at the same place, at other times it is a case of finding somewhere nearby and hacking. It is all a lot easier than the old days when people used to regularly hack 10 miles or more to the meet, do a days hunting then hack home again. We are all very soft in the 21st century! Details about parking can be had from the Hunt Secretary.
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