Image ID: 14738

The Grove Hunt at Osberton Hall, Near Worksop

Osberton Hall
Osberton
England

A hunting picture showing huntsmen and hounds in the grounds of Osberton Hall. The hall was a commanding country mansion, belonging at one time to Mr. Francis John Savile Foljambe, J.P. The Grove and Rufford Hunt hunts fox in a country extending some 30 miles east to west and 40 miles north to south in Nottingham and South Yorkshire. It is bordered by the Trent to the East and the M1 to the West and extends from Newark to North of Doncaster. The Grove and Rufford Hunt was formed by the amalgamation of the Grove and the Rufford Hunts in 1952. The Grove country area was constituted in 1827 by Mr. George Savile Foljambe. From 1832 to 1837 Mr. Foljambe hunted the sand and clay portion of the country, while Colonel Fullerton, of Thryburgh Park, hunted the limestone portion, with kennels at Sandbeck. In 1837 Mr. Foljambe resumed Mastership ofthe whole Grove country. In 1860 a portion of the Grove county, east and south of the Rivers Rother and Don was lent, with defined boundares, to the 6th Earl Fitzwilliam, and this arrangement was continued to the present Earl Fitzwilliam until May 1929, when Lord Fitzwilliam's (Wentworth) having been given up, the country reverted to the Grove. By a fresh arrangement a portion of the county previously lent to Earl Fitzwilliam is now lent to the Barlow Hunt. The Grove kennels were first stablished at Bilby, but were shortly afterwards moved by Mr. Foljambe to Grove, where the hounds remained until 1887, when Viscount Galway built new kennels at Serlby. When Viscount Galway resigned the Mastership in 1907, Earl Fitzwilliam bought the entire Grove pack, and bulding new kennels at Barnby Moor, he placed the hounds and these kennels in the hands of trustees, to be used by himself and further Masters of the Grove Hounds, for hunting the Grove Country. Prior to the amalgamation with the Rufford, the name of the Hunt has reverted to its old one of the Grove Hounds instead of Earl Fitzwilliam Grove Hounds. The Rufford country with Lord Harrington's formed part of the tract hunted by the 4th Earl of Lincoln in 1667. Lord Castleton hunted it in 1709, as also did Lord Scarbrough and Mr. F. Foljambe after him.

Date: 1920 - 1930

Organisation Reference: NCCN001145

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