The Bucks Otter Hunt on film and in photographs


Waddy Wadsworth, writing in his book A Sporting Life makes reference to several instances in the mid-1970s when the Bucks Otter Hounds were captured on hunts by television news reporters, including one by Anglian News, and another by the well known BBC reporter Fyfe Robertson, though sadly inquiries to the BBC have failed to turn up any footage of the latter.

One possible film of the Bucks Otter Hunt does exist. The details provided for this film are that it is of Otter hounds at Burghfield, Buckinghamshire, though Burghfield is actually in Berkshire. But this very likely is the Bucks Otter Hunt, as we know the river Kennet at Burghfield was hunted by them. For instance, a hunting appointments notice in the Reading Mercury of July 8th, 1911, announces that the Bucks Otter Hunt would be meeting at the Kennet at Burghfield Bridge.

Ken Purkiss photographs

Ken Purkiss was a leading photographer of English rural life in the 1950s, and captured many photographs of the Bucks Otter Hunt. The pictures are by turns both dramatic and disturbing, showing periods of calm during the hunt, punctuated by moments of great peril and violence toward the otters.
A crossroads in an unidentified village crowded with a hunt staff in uniform and a large pack of hounds. There are large crowds of onlookers.
A hunt meeting, location unknow. The large turnout of spectators is notable.
A pack of otter hounds swin in a river near a bank thick with reeds.
The hounds hunting in an unknown river.
Peter Howe and Philip Austin in waders and flat caps, in fast moving water surrouned by reeds, and with three hounds, also in the water.
Bucks Otter Hounds at Water Stratford, circa 1946-47. Pictured, Peter Howe & Philip Austin.
Rupert Uthwatt stands behind a 5 bar gate. He is leaning on the gate with one arm, and dozen or more Otter Hounds stand crowded around his feet.
William Rupert Uthwatt, Lord of Great Linford Manor, pictured with the Bucks Otter Hound pack.
Rupert Uthwatt, master of the hunt, blows a hunting horn in a field, surrounded by the otter hunting pack.
Master of the hunt, William Rupert Uthwatt blows a hunting horn.
Three members of the Bucks Otter Hunt carrying large sticks stand in a field with a large pack of hounds, mostly sitting.
Captioned 1946-47 Jack Absolou. His role has yet to be identified.
A man wading in a river holds the body of an otter while a woman, also wading in the water looks on. Both appear to be shouting and a large pack of dogs swings around them.
A particularly stark image capturing the brutality of the hunt.
Picture
Likely that an otter has gone to ground under the tree and the hounds have the scent.
Jack Absolou strides through a field surrounded by dogs, with about a dozen other men in the far distance.
Jack Absolou of the Bucks Otter Hounds.
Photographs on this website from the Ken Purkiss collection are reproduced under licence by the kind permission of the "Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading", and has been made possible by a grant from the Milton Keynes Heritage Association, supported by Milton Keynes City Council.