Ghost Town - The
hard facts about FMD and Exmoor
Kate
Green reports for Horse & Hound on the village of Exford,
gateway to Exmoor, a village that has seen its spring economy
devastated as hunting visitors stay away due to foot-and-mouth:
The atmosphere in the village of Exford is extremely weird. One inmate, who had been on holiday as the foot-and-mouth crisis unfolded, described the scene on his return as resembling "a deserted planet on Star Trek". At 10 o'clock on any other spring morning, Exford is a rural Piccadilly Circus. Strings of horses clutter through, traffic jams up the garage, queues form in the three shops for newspapers and hunting picnic supplies, and livestock lorries bound for Taunton market compete with horseboxes and tourist coaches to cross the narrow bridge over the River Exe. Come later afternoon, ratcatcher-clad hunting visitors eat cream teas alongside hikers and Saga coachloads before imbibing something stronger in one of the two pubs. Today, though, a horrible, eerie emptiness prevails, as if this bewildering plague had already blasted through - it is now frighteningly close in North Devon - and a discomforting sign reads: "Is your journey really necessary?"
In 1999, locals, seriously alarmed by the decline in hill farming and the threat to hunting, formed the pressure group Endangered Exmoor to alert politicians and tourists to their worries, protect the thriving red deer herd and fight for their traditional way of life. Endangered Exmoor - farmers, gamekeepers, grooms, vets shopkeepers and publicans, to name but a handful of professions involved - has proved sadly prophetic, for their exact economic nightmare scenario is here now, a dreadful precursor to Exmoor with no hunting. "There's a real sense of fear," says Endangered Exmoor's secretary Pat Bawden, who is also secretary to the Molland Estate and whose husband works for the Exmoor National Park. "It feels as though it's pecking at our doorstep and we're only just keeping it out. If it gets to the deer, we're sunk. No deer equals no Exmoor as we know it. Fortunately, most people seem to recognise this and there is a real solidarity between the farming and tourist industries. Everyone is looking long-term".
The hunting season on Exmoor lasts for nine months and since time immemorial hunting folk from "up country" have extended their own, shorter, hunting season with a visit to Exmoor. Field sports on Exmoor (including shooting and fishing) contribute £13.5 million per annum, with 400 people employed full-time in hunting-related jobs nd 800 part-time. In 1988, it was calculated that 3,000 followers had 67,000 days' hunting and spent £5.5 million. Nearly 10% of the working population of Exmoor would lose their jobs if hunting were banned. A report by West somerset District Council concluded that "a ban on hunting would pose a severe challenge", while Endangered Exmoor's three day survey in the towns of Taunton and Wellington revealed that only 1.04% thought hunting was a government issue. Now, the south-west of England is due to lose £100 million in tourism revenue.
One major casualty is the Golden Horseshoe ride, which this year had attained international status. For the duration of that long weekend in May, visitors would have doubled Exford's population of 400.
Exford is fortunate to have the tireless Labour peeress Baroness Mallalieu as a resident, but is rather less lucky with its MP, the vehemently anti-hunting Liberal Democrat Jackie Ballard, who enraged locals by participating in the Commons hunting debate on the day the news of foot-and mouth broke and who had not visited the moor since the start of the crisis. The north part of the moor, however, falls into Conservative Tom King's constituency, and he has been given a shopping list by local businessmen, including interest-free loans, cessation of business rates and calling the army in to create a "cordon sanitaire" around the moor.
Pat Bawden describes Exmoor's tangibly panicky mood as "like waiting for the sword of Damocles". Tragically, for some, the sword has clearly fallen.
The
Kennels:
Exford is home to the Devon & Somerset Staghound kennels,
which has four staff in kennel and four in stables, one of whom
has already been laid off, while the others are occupying
themselves with "summertime" tasks such as painting.
The 18 horses are squelching about up to their hocks in mud and a
thoughtful hunt supporter has just rung to offer a supply of Nrew
Zealand rugs. Donald Summersgill, now in his 10th season as
huntsman, has the whole place scrubbed immaculately. "It's
desperate; hounds are usually so fit at this time of the year.
All I can do is let them out a couple of times a week in the
grass yard and they're getting bored and a bit niggly. I haven't
got any flesh, apart from a couple of horses, so I'm having to
feed a mix, which they don't much like."
Despite the voluntary cessation of hunting, a close eye is being
kept on deer welfare and Donald has been called to dispose of
casualties, while MAFF has at last asked for two staff to help
with the cull.
Spring staghunting is the cream of the season. Joint-secretary
Anne Hosegood confirmed that about £23,000 has been lost in
caps, plus £12,500 in field money, while the cancellation of the
point-to-point will bring this spring's loss in hunt funds to
around £52,000.
The Livery
Yard:
Jeanette Branton, chairman of Endangered Exmoor and a farmer's
wife, has a dismally empty yard. She runs the White Horse yard,
which was once occupied by John Shedden, Badminton's first
winner, and is an intrinsic part of Exmoor's hunting legend. She
usually has 15 hunter liveries, plus an extra 10 visiting in the
spring. "Spring hunting is the icing on the cake, but this
spring isn't going to pay, not even the wages. Losing March and
April will probably cost me £4,000. My two girls have been with
me for ages. They expect to be paid until the end of April and
I'm not going to let them down. We've got just six horses left,
because their owners can't have them, and we're riding them
around the roads, taking care not to go through any farmyards.
They're getting very bored and naughty."
Jeanette, a local doctor's daughter who has known no other living
than hunters in Exford for more than 20 years, has found herself
a reluctant, but eloquent, Endangered Exmoor spokesperson,
appearing on TV and presenting petitions to Tony Blair. "My
children are now old enough to go hunting and appreciate the
moor. I'll do whatever I can to preserve our way of life for
them."
The
Farrier:
John Ken't blacksmith forge has been a fixture in Exford for more
than 30 years. "My business is gone. This is usually the
peak time of year, but I've just got one or two horses to
shoe," he says. His wife Betty adds: "It's the unknown
that's so worrying; we don't know who to write to or where to go
for help."
Andrew "Bootsie" Saunders, who trained with John Kent,
estimates that foot-and-mouth has knocked two-thirds off his
work. "The Farriers Registration Council is on the case, but
I'm not sure what it can do. It's just like it would be with no
hunting. There's no money coming in and without that you're going
nowhere. All I'm doing is shoeing racehorses at the moment. And
with no hunting, there's nothing to do after 11 am on a Saturday
either. It's all very depressing."
The
Village Stores:
Sally and Trevor Gilbert run the Exmoor Stores in Exford and they
estimate turnover is down by 50%. "If the hunting bill was
to go through, the village would be like this all the time,"
says Sally, who is close to tears with stress. "We're
noticing the lack of visitors a lot. Every week, a lovely man
from Lyme Regis would come up for hunting and spend about £30.
But we know that the moor has to stay closed because if we lose
the deer we'll lose everything. I can't help thinking of all the
money that has been wasted on the Dome - if they gave a £10,000
grant to all the village shops we might just survive this."
David Whitehouse, who runs the post office next door, is also
down 50% on the retail side. "Usually, bottles of whisky and
port are flying off the shelves on a hunting morning and I'm
having to cancel all the little investments like painting the
outside of the shop. I would like to see a fortress around the
moor. We'll have to wipe out this year anyway, but if we get
foot-and-mouth here we'll be wiped out for 10 years.
Horse
Holidays:
Three years ago Mike and Myra Ellicott sold their Dartmoor farm
to escape the BSE crisis and moved to Exford, where they bought
Stockleigh Lodge, a going concern catering for people bringing
their horses to hunt or hack on the moor. "We've worked so
hard but, yet again, we feel we're in the middle of a disaster
which isn't our fault," says Myra. "The horse holidays
were just taking off, we'd increased our turnover from £30,000
to £50,000 and we were on the up." Stockleigh Lodge is now
empty and absolutely immaculate, without a trace of horsehair or
mud. "Its horrendous," says Mike. "People are
terribly apologetic about cancelling, but we've lost £15,000 of
bookings for March and April, which is our busiest time, and a
week's worth of Golden Horseshoe bookings. We're hoping to
re-open in August, but we'll never recoup our losses. But I'd
rather see everything closed down than get foot-and-mouth here.
That would be disastrous for the moor."
The Pub:
Peter Hendrie, landlord of the White Horse, had accepted that he
has lost most of March and April, but is depressed to be taking
cancellations into May and June. Instead of 40 guests, he now had
10 - nine-tenths of his business at this time of year is hunting
visitors. "We've had a dramatic slump. Year on year our
takings are down by 75%," he says. "We've got 30 staff
on the payroll and are trying as hard as we can not to lay people
off, but we have had to cut hours back drastically. "It's a
terrible atmosphere. I fear that a lot of business will go
under." Mr Hendrie was part of a group which met Bridgwater
MP Tom King. "He's asked us to submit figures for specific
areas, such as staff and overdraft facilities, and has promised
to put the figures forward in an attempt to get us some funding.
I know some places have conflict between farming and tourism, but
I feel that we've got to blow grievances out of the window and
all stick together."