Batchelor Party As Northern Counties Mink Hounds Get Sabbed!

A barn full of old folks in bright waistcoats? A verge full of Sabs in their new black spring outfits? Mink hunt sabbing must be underway!

Hunt Saboteurs from Sheffield, Manchester, Staffordshire, Hull and West Yorkshire found themselves at a familiar meet, Eastfield Farm in Arram. Where the highland cattle sit cooped up in the barn next to the table full of sandwiches and shortbread, laid out for a handful of would be midweek riverbank hunters. The Northern Counties Mink Hounds are having a little social, building up their energy for a long afternoon of terrorising the banks of the River Hull.

Little did they know, jogging around the corner were two dozen jolly folks in black, prepped with radios and camcorders, ready to spoil their day, and save some lives.

Sabs were in good spirits, it’s been a while since fox hunting season ended up in the north of England, so a good rest, combined with a lazy start for a 1pm meet and the mood was high as friends gathered in sab vans for the first time in a while.

Part way through the twenty minute standoff which ensued over the farm yard, sabs noticed a new, much younger, face among the large handful of Northern Counties followers. None other than ex Stour Valley and Eastern Counties Mink Hounds huntsman, James Batchelor, clearly looking for a break from kennel duties at the Ampleforth Beagles. It seems the Northern Counties may be trying to shake things up a little. When we arrived James was trying to ingratiate himself with NC support with two tins of shortbread! Best save them for the next meet eh, James?

Arram is a familiar meet. Back in lockdown ‘outdoor sports’ were banned for a big part of the fox hunting season (the one-and-only time sabs will accept hunting as a sport). The ban was lifted just about when mink hunting season started in the spring, when covid rates dropped, and the weather warmed.

Arram was one of the first meets we sabbed in recent years, if you can call filming oddballs in colourful trousers with well groomed mustaches eating sandwiches ‘sabbing’. That meet was the start of a glorious summer, where sabs from across the north frequently descended on Northern Counties meets, and saw the hunt crumble, diminishing in numbers week by week. East Yorkshire Coast hit the Northern Counties at Arram again last season,and other groups have hit them there in previous years.

Today there was a lucky new huntsman driving the old LDV houndvan to meet us in Arram. We think we’ve given him a suitable welcome, and a taste of the summer ahead of him. He packed up his tin of biscuits before even unloading his hounds, and drove off back to Helmsley; where the NC are kenneled with the Bilsdale Hunt – Thoroughly Sabbed.

The Northern Counties, named after the old Northern Counties Otter Hounds, moved to the Bilsdale Kennels from the Hurworth in summer 2023. They were previously kennelled with the York and Ainsty South and before that the Grove and Rufford. The locations of these kennels roughly outline the Hunt’s country, though they have mostly been found in the North Yorkshire area. Technically, their northern boundary is the River Tees, if the Tynedale Mink hounds are still active! In previous years, they have been sabbed not far south of Darlington.

If anyone has any news on the Northern Counties Mink Hounds, or any other hunts please do get in touch. Look out for packs of hounds on the riverbanks, and groups of old people looking like they are dressed up for a Harry Potter convention. Sabs are ready. This is the beginning of another summer of sabbing.

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