Fox Hunting

Looking west from the area around the church. Typical Frolesworth countryside.

Interviewer: Was there ever any fox hunting?

Mr Ball: Oh yes.

Interviewer: What was your relation… did the hunt ever go across your land?

Mr Ball: Yes, I never tried to stop them though.

Interviewer: Did they make a mess?

Mr Ball: Well, if you went onto your land and kept up with the hunt you could put them across the grass fields – you see there wasn’t much ploughed land then – put them across the grass field then it didn’t matter, but now everywhere you go it’s ploughed. The trouble is, if the hunt come across early winter all those footmarks stand with the water all the winter, if it’s sowed with wheat or anything like that it kills it, that is the trouble. At that time there was plenty of space for the hunt to go without… Yes, there was a big fox cover in Frolesworth which was double dug, before my time. I knew the man who had dug it, and they used to just block the foxes out so they couldn’t come back in the morning, then the hunt would hunt them you see. But we didn’t get too many foxes.

©EMOHA