Location: Threlkeld, Cumbria, CA12 4SQ

Business type: Venue

Business website: www.horseandfarrier.com/

Date listed: October 28, 2024

A supporter emailed us about Threlkeld’s Horse and Farrier, saying that they had been looking for a hotel to stay at and after reading ‘we still welcome the local hunt’ had decided not to stay there. Are they, the supporter asked, really proud to welcome a hunt? On an ‘About Us’ page, we do indeed find the following information: “The Horse and Farrier lies hard up beneath the towering ridges of Blencathra in the village of Threlkeld Cumbria…We still welcome the local hunt but the Owner is a bit taller and definitely slimmer!” We’re not in a position to say whether or not the pub is proud to welcome the hunt. but they certainly don’t shy away from it. And they will know the hunt and its supporters well, because the hunt in question is the Blencathra Foxhounds (also known as the John Peel Hunt), a foot pack which has had its kennels in Threlkeld for many decades. Not everyone is so enamoured of the hunt though. In February 2024, the Keswick Reminder posted that “Cumbria Wildlife Trust (CWT) has responded to reports from members of the public and on social media that huntsmen from the Blencathra Foxhounds were “all over” the Eycott Hill nature reserve, just off the A66 between Keswick and Penrith, on Sunday February 18”, and Lancashire Hunt Sabs (amongst others) have frequently reported on the Blencathra hunting illegally – eg BLENCATHRA FOXHOUNDS DATE – 13th January 2024. The same Hunstman, Barry Todhunter (a classic case of nominative determinism or just plain baiting of pro-wildlife folk), has been with the Blencathra since before the Hunting Act 2004, and in light of that it’s worth reading a Lakeland Hunting Memories account from 2005, just days before the Act came into force, on fox hunting in the Cumbrian Fells, which includes such choice sentences as “This was not before Raymond Ritchie witnessed Modesty ’98 catching a fox on her own which turned out to be yet another fox maimed by shooting, having only three good legs” and “On 17th February, the day before anti-hunt legislation came into force, the pack met at the White Lion Inn, Patterdale, and accounted for two foxes.” And activists are expected to believe that hunts like the Blencathra have changed…

Credits

Information provided by a supporter (thank you)

Listing is to inform choice only. By listing a business we are not suggesting or implying that the business is acting unlawfully. We are not asking for a boycott of the business. If you wish to contact the business please do so politely. We are a non-violent organisation and making threats, intimidating or harassing individuals is never acceptable under any circumstances and may lead to prosecution.

Listing is to inform choice only. By listing a business we are not suggesting or implying that the business is acting unlawfully. We are not asking for a boycott of the business. If you wish to contact the business please do so politely. We are a non-violent organisation and making threats, intimidating or harassing individuals is never acceptable under any circumstances and may lead to prosecution.