Fox Hunting in Hertfordshire, 19th century.

December, 2005

Brian Croker (crokerb @t bigpond.net.au) of Perth, Western Australia,  I would be grateful if you would please check your book "The Hertfordshire Hunt" to see if any mention is made of the Chipperfield Hunt which family sources say became firstly the Hertfordshire Hunt and later the Buckinghamshire Hunt. I am seeking information about a Charles SMITH who was said to have been a member of the Chipperfield Hunt before he came to Western Australia in 1830.

The older hunts normally date back to a major "sponsor" who founded them. The Hertfordshire Hunt was founded in about 1775 by the Countess of Salisbury, of Hatfield House and, at least at a later date hunted over central Hertfordshire and north into Bedfordshire (see review of The Hertfordshire Hunt fir some more details)18th century. The Earl of Berkley set up a hunt, covering a very large area towards the end of the 18th century, and early in the 19th century it was split, and the Old Berkeley Hunt was formed and covered parts of Middlesex, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire. There is an article on the history of "The Old Berkeley Hunt" in Hertfordshire Countryside (No 4, Spring 1947) which locates kennels in Hertfordshire (at Rickmansworth) in the 1830's and at Tring in the 1840s, and it is clear that the "O.B.H" operated in the west of Hertfordshire (and adjacent counties) from at least this date, and the main contact for their Pony Club in 2005 lives at Chipperfield!

It should be noted that Chipperfield only became a parish in 1838, having previously been part of Kings Langley. There is no manor or stately home associated with it and I would not have expected a hunt to be named after it in 1830. However there could well have been a hunt which met there say once a year, and your Charles Smith may have attended it, possibly riding up the hill from Kings Langley.