country life
Island Life - April/May 2010
Photo: Left: Carly Reynolds, Naomi Bellamy (Chairman), Julie Wannop-Corney, Heather Nelson, Anna Morris and Anne Plimley
The Leverets
The new Isle of Wight Foot Beagles supporters club
Beagling has been taking place in Great
same sex or different sex are known as a
countryside, you wouldn’t normally get
Britain since before the Roman occupation
couple.
the chance to experience.
of our shores. It has been the sport
With the introduction of the hunting
They employ a huntsman whose job it
of the English gentry for hundreds of
ban the Foot Beagles stopped hunting
is to maintain the kennels and welfare of
years and is thought to have been first
hares and took to rabbits, which the
the hounds and to hunt the hounds on
practiced on the island in the sixteenth
hounds have adapted to well. The Isle of
a Saturday. He is assisted on the day by
century.
Wight Foot Beagles meet every Saturday
‘whippers in’, to help him manage the
between September and March.
hounds.
The Isle of Wight Foot Beagles was
established in 1906 by Henry Young,
A regular Saturday during the season
There is a strong following and
and although there have been a couple
consists of a ‘meet’ at 1pm at a venue
dedicated support at each meet and now
of breaks in the associations history the
around the island where you would
a new club called ‘ The Leverets’ has
current pack has been going strong since
enjoy a drink and the opportunity to
been formed to fundraise and encourage
1964.
chat socially before heading off on foot,
people to experience and learn more
often across privately owned land (with
about the work the Isle of Wight Foot
permission) to sample some of the islands
Beagles do.
They keep around 16 ‘couple of
hounds’- a pair of hounds whether of the
90
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