THE now traditional Boxing Day meet for the Cotswold Vale Farmers’ Hunt will depart as usual at 11am but this year makes a return to Newent after more than 20 years at the Glass House on May Hill.

This year it will gather outside the George rather than, as this 1951 picture shows in Market Square.

The building behind the riders is in fact now occupied by Gooch Sports - now a splendid array of mediaeval timbers.

We can only surmise that at some point the facade of the building framing was plastered over and restored to its timber framed glory at a later date.

The riders pictured are, from the left: Edward Pullen, an unidentified child on a pony, Maud Speakman, Jennifer Tydenham, nee Speakman, Richard Speakman and Michaels Keene.

The two small boys at the front on the right are Richard and Bill Speakman, there to cheer on their parents.

The Cotswold Vale hunt is probably unique as it boasts among its former supporters, if not members, a dedicated left wing socialist who took part in the Russian Revolution.

As a wealthy Old Harrovian and Trinity College Cambridge man who inherited a 2,000 acre estate in the area, Morgan Philips-Price’s credentials as a Bolshevik rabble rouser were hardly self evident.

When he returned to Gloucestershire he was often asked how he could square his left wing politics with a love of hunting and would glibly point out that Lenin was a keen hunter of bears.