UNTIL the ancient blood sport of fox hunting met its Waterloo in England in 2005, it used to attract up to 200,000 adherents a year.

The hills around Rochdale were alive to the sound of the traditional cry ‘Tally Ho’ as the huntsmen, resplendent in pink hunting coats and black caps and followed by a pack of hungry hounds, went in search of their often elusive quarry.

One of the biggest locally was that organised by the Holcombe Hunt, the riders and dogs usually meeting in the car park at the old Egerton Arms Hotel on Ashworth Moor prior to setting off.

But in March 1965, as this look into our record shows, things didn’t exactly go to plan – and it was nothing to do with the activities of the League Against Cruel Sports.

For minutes after the midday rendezvous one of the horses threw its rider.

Then it bolted towards Rochdale, as fast as any fox, never mind horse, could go, hotly pursued by huntsmen on horseback and in cars, finally to be caught in the busy traffic of Mellor Street by a brave pedestrian.

The hunt had been two fields from the Egerton Arms when the girth straps on the horse slipped and the animal bucked.

The frightened horse, nostrils flared and going strong, then ran off along Ashworth Road and on to Bury Road, thundering past the Dog and Partridge pub, bewildering passers-by who had no idea where it had come from.

The horse was eventually brought to a halt in Mellor Street by a Mr William Burke, aged 42, of Darlington Road, Queensway, who grabbed the animal’s reins.

Observer photographer Jim Rowbotham was quickly on the scene and captured this picture for our readers.

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