The Puckeridge is a remarkable survivor, being very close to London and Stanstead Airport. It is a largely arable country and yet by careful management of coverts and retention of hedges, it can show respectable sport. This is not least because Brent Pelham at its centre is still the home of the Barclay family who have hunted the hounds here for many generations and nurtured their land around the village for that very purpose.

Like Cattistock, Brent Pelham is a hunting village. The cottage of one of the hunt staff is the first building to greet you as you enter the village from the north. As you round the corner, the hunt kennels are the first sign of activity that you see.

You are likely to see hunt horses being led through the village, past the church and the pub, with its memorabilia of hunting.

The kennels are unremarkable but the Barclays' house, Brent Pelham Hall, is a fine listed building in the centre of the village. The hunting country around it surely deserves to be retained as an essential part of its setting.

Certainly, to take hunting from this village would be to extract its heart.

The chosen sample Historic Hunting Landscape amounts to an oasis of hunting country with Brent Pelham at its centre. It is distinctly better. covered with woodland and hedgerows than much of the neighbouring landscape in the hands of those less involved in hunting.

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Date uploaded to site 26 April 2000