Hounds setting off
The Old Berkeley Beagles (OBB) was formed in 1927 as a successor to the RAF Uxbridge Beagles, who had hunted in Middlesex after the Great War. Previously the area in South Bucks around Slough and the Chalfonts had been hunted by the Stoke Place Beagles. Upon their disbandment the OBB registered a country, with the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles, which stretches from Watford to Beaconsfield and High Wycombe in the south and follows the A40 towards Thame, then to Bicester where it follows the old A41 to Banbury. From Watford, the country runs to Berkhamsted, Tring and out to Mentmore, Wing, Stewkley, Winslow, Buckingham, Brackley and west to Banbury.
Until the late 1960’s, our country was mainly in the Chilterns and the southern half of the Vale of Aylesbury. Progressively we have moved our meets further out into the Vale and, in the 1990’s, we have based most of our activity in the country from Amersham in the south to Bicester and Brackley in the north, Buckingham in the east and Thame in the west. This is a direct consequence of the growth and spread of population around what are now the M25 and M40 motorways. Today we only meet once in the Chilterns out of a total of some 45 meets per season.