Welcome to the website page exploring the history of Lurgashall Parish
The Archive room at the Village Hall is next open to visitors on Wed 28th JANUARY, 2.30 – 4.30pm.
Contact: archive@lurgashallvillagehall.org
Tally Ho!
A novice watches and learns at her first Hunt Meet
The Archive is lucky to have this beautiful photograph of a Hunt Meet on Lurgashall Green dating from the early 1900s.
The Hunt still meets in our area today – much changed, amalgamated and, fortunately, since 2005 no longer killing foxes or other animals.
An opportunity arose recently to go and watch the gathering of the Opening Meet of the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray Hunt at Stag Park Farm, just inside the southern tip of Lurgashall Parish.
A Hunt has its own language:
* Field Master is the person in charge of the Field.
* The scarlet jackets worn by one or two of the Field should never be described as red but are pink!
* The Hunt’s pack of modern English foxhounds (you have probably heard them when walking in Petworth Park!) are never referred to as dogs, always hounds. It is the duty of mounted followers to keep out of the way of the hounds, not vice versa.
* The Huntsman is the person who hunts the hounds and is in charge of the kennels. They have absolute right of way at all times.
This Hunt has about 51 hounds (or, as they would say, ‘25.5 couple’) in kennels bred for scenting in their varied country, meaning the boundary area in which a Hunt operates.
Much jollity, a warming glass of port and a fun scene in beautiful countryside.