The beagles met at Hade Edge, on Saturday, which is only a bit of a valley away from a spot called Hades, so you can draw your own conclusions.
Actually Hade Edge is on an elevated ridge high above Holmfirth that leaves the village of Holme looking very sheltered in the lee of the Pennines, because Hade Edge gets it from all directions. Hade Edge has an excellent pub where we met called The Bay Horse and I seem to remember it could be bit of a wild place in the 1950's when the Woodhead railway tunnel was being constructed at Dunford Bridge. There is also a high-class award winning butcher there (Brindon), and maybe other thriving businesses. but it is just a bit bleak up there for my liking
Wind and rain from the start, the rain eventually petered out with the odd burst of sun as the very stiff wind hurried the clouds along with a few ragged gaps now and then.
This is Holme Valley Beagles country we are in with the combined pack under the field management of the Colne Valley Beagles, so given our new association the two packs operate as one. So for many it was a new experience to be in this country which is a rough moorland area called Magnum where we went with the hounds, a keepered grouse shoot where cratering and spoil heaps of scattered old stone quarry workings make the going even rougher in places. But is is a beautiful spot with lovely views.
Getting ready
Remembrance Day poppy fitting - Huntsman makes sure a Whip is properly attired
Waiting to be off - the moor is over there somewhere.
Precautionary relief maybe.
Time to go. The rain may not show but it was certainly there and it was gloomy too.
He was glad when he got to the top of there.
What with loose stones, and slippery wet moss sometimes one had to let one's -
anthropoid genes take over!
Hope his binoculars were waterproof. I couldn't cope without some headgear especially in the wind and rain and also to see better when the low sun comes out.
Apprentice Whip maybe?
Hounds take a line on a rabbit
Which goes to ground as rabbits do
Yes, it went in there
Generally speaking I can't tell one hound from another but the one on the right who seems to be a dead keen chap has quite a deep jaw and I wonder if he is an HVB hound as I have never noticed him before.
One of the Masters offering advice.
I'll post a link here to give this gentleman a bit of advertising - Shooting man
You can see from the way he stands that he really needs a shotgun under his arm but he'll have to make do with a fell stick like everyone else.
Bit of sun has come out and so have the packs of sandwiches
There seemed to be a profound reluctance to give up the high ground.
Down in the bottom, a pole spans the goit.
Being a grouse moor; that we are lucky to be able to be on as it is not public; vermin have to be controlled, so this is a vermin trap. Run through here and snap!
Just by way of conclusion, I was up above the side of the reservoir, that one can see down the valley in some photos above. I took our dogs a couple of years ago, where it is accessible to the public. It is more deeply quarried there It was a different world in the snow as we had little of it at home. But the image below shows the cratering of some of the landscape.
The reservoir is down to the left out of sight in the picture below and over to the top right of the picture is the area where most of the above photos were taken. So it is taken looking back towards where we were.
As for the one below, It doesn't matter how much I alter the image this system on here will not post it with the snow more white. It darkens it every time
We didn't stop too long as it was quite arctic with very deep snow in the quarried craters, that had blown off some areas of the top, and I didn't want to lose a dog in one.
