SCARLET AND GREEN

Front cover - Kevin Lunn Huntsman 1989

THE COLNE VALLEY BEAGLES - LOOKING BACK

‘Scarlet and Green’ is a book, long out of print,  written by Ken Green and Simon Shaw, illustrating three centuries of the Colne Valley Beagles.

Some of the illustrations below appear in the book and some others I have culled from the late Ken Green’s extensive archives and are probably courtesy of Huddersfield Examiner, as no one else took decent photographs in the days they represent.

A few on here date from the earliest days when the pack was kenneled at Black Rock Mills, Linthwaite and Henry Lockwood, nicknamed Peg Lockwood as he was thought to have a wooden leg, was the Master, the Lockwood family owning the mill.  In fact my first real job was as a textile designer there, by which time the hounds were long gone from the mill and other generations of Lockwoods ran the factory producing ‘Colne Valley Tweed’.  The mill, now mostly demolished, was forever known locally as 'Peg Lockwood's'.

The pack was originally a harrier pack, not beagles, and somehow it was held together during WW2 until the cost and inconvenience of harriers forced the change to the more practical beagles in 1951.

Of the authors, Ken Green was a CVB huntsman for 21 years.  His day job was as a self employed window cleaner.  I mention this because there are those who seem to think ‘hunting’ is for ‘toffs’ but if you look at the photographs you will see this is not necessarily the case.  Both the CVB and the HVB are what one might call working class hunts, note the cloth caps, even if they were supported by the occasional local millowner.  So called social and financial status were and still are a complete irrelevance to the membership and many of us still wear cloth caps which are part of the hunt uniform.  The CVB as with the Holme Valley Beagles used to have two meets on a Saturday, one in the morning with a break at a pub for quick refreshment then an afternoon meet so that the millworkers, the engineers, the chemical and other workers of the area could get there after the obligatory Saturday morning work of that era.  Simon Shaw was a close friend of Ken Green, was a whipper-in and is custodian of much of Ken’s collection of CVB memorabilia and shared his passion for documenting the history of the hunt.

The pack became known as the Colne Valley Foot Harriers in 1893 although the book says there are records dating back to 1690.  Prior to 1893 Henry Lockwood had been associated with the Slaithwaite and Glocar Hunt for ten years. Their hounds lived in homesteads around the area and were called together on the day of hunting.  He brought them together to form the Colne Valley Foot Harriers

The first image is that of Henry Lockwood, with the harriers and his huntsman Andy Dyson with the old Southern hound type along with three pure bred otterhounds. 

Henry Lockwood and Andy Dyson in 1893

1907  Arthur Booth at the Royal Hotel with the harriers.

1911 Colne Valley Harriers with Huntsman Arthur Booth.  Henry Lockwood, Master, is third from the right with his hunting horn in his vest.

1923 Colne Valley Harriers with Huntsman Arthur Booth at The Lamb Hotel, Hillhouse.

Dave O’Lindas, gamekeeper for the Whitley Beaumont estate who lived at Dungeon Cottage which became the home of the Colne Valley hounds in 1915

Dungeon Cottage

A centenary plate

A bit of the history.  An escaping Luddite hid the guns somewhere in the wood here.

Atrocious Murder report

21st October 1812 - report of the murder

Colne Valley Harriers in 1938 with Frank Teasdale as huntsman

A protest delegation by members of the Saddleworth Hunt and the CVB at Westminster in 1949 where a Bill to outlaw some forms of hunting was defeated by 214 votes to 101

At the bull and Dog, Stainland with Frank Teasdale, huntsman 1936 to 1951 and Ken Green, his young whipper-in age 14.  Mr and Mrs Radcliffe Harmer are the publicans.

An adjoining hunt of the day was the Saddleworth Hunt.  Joe O'Lukes is seen here with the last harrier walked in Saddleworth called Major, along with Charlie Pearson who was the Colne Valley huntsman from 1916 to 1936.  The note below was on the back of the photograph and some of it is transcribed underneath.

Joe O’Lukes was a religious man who would not work on a Sunday and was very involved with local hunts..  He was keeper of the Upperwood Estate at Greenfield but got sacked as he fell asleep after a session in the Cross Keys at Uppermill and set fire to the moor with his pipe.  He is remembered for sitting in the corner of The Junction, in Marsden, wearing a trilby and a long black coat with a full set of hunt buttons on it.  The coat held fame as he claimed it was the hunting coat that gamekeeper William Uttley wore when he was murdered in 1903 on Marsden Moor and still sported the shot holes from that event.  Joe features in the song ‘The Keepers and the Drivers’, and the unsolved Marsden Moor murder was set in verse called, ‘On a wild September’s day’ by the well known local poet Ammon Wrigley.  There are plaques on the high stone edge of Pots and Pans commemorating Ammon.  Joe died in 1955 and instructed that his hunt buttons be cut off and distributed to his favourite women in the village.

The Keepers and the Drivers song 

 Marsden Moor Murders newspaper report

1945 Stainland with Frank Teasdale Huntsman and Ken Green Whipper-in.

1951 The last season of the harriers

The first opening meet of the Colne Valley Beagles at the Bull’s Head, Blackmoorfoot in September 1951

Ken Green blowing Going Home using Charlie Pearson’s curly horn at his funeral in 1954.  This tradition is maintained today for hunt characters who have passed away, and there have been and still are many ‘characters’!

1955 Boxing Day Meet at Wappy Springs.  Alf O’Bonks who is the fifth on the left in a flat cap, normally a bowler, was another real character of the CVB and may get mentioned another time.

1957 the CVB at the Rising Sun

1962 Boxing Day in the snow at Wappy Springs

Just to round off looking back from 1962, just over 50 years ago, a bit of a sequel.

1972 Ken Green’s retirement presentation after 21 years service.

1969 the CVB in Ennerdale.  Vanity stimulates me to include this as I am ‘never’ on hunting photos but I did get on this one - the guy with the camera on the left on the annual Lakes visit by the CVB.  Wonderful times.

And for those Bloggers who wrestle to get their photos on their blog a word of advice - use  Google Chrome.  I have struggled for hours trying to get Firefox to upload photos to this blog.  I finally found that others have similar problems.  Firefox doesn't work properly but Google Chrome works a treat. (I wonder if that was deliberately contrived by Google?)