Joyce Godber 
The Oakley hunt [PDF ebook] 

The Oakley hunt


The development of hunts in Bedfordshire is recounted in the introduction and through transcriptions of documents from several collections in Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service.  The documents relate to private hunts (1708-1797) and to the Oakley hunt (1795-1920).  They include the hound book of Richard Orlebar of Hinwick House (1708-1727); private correspondence (Orlebar, William Lee Antonie, Samuel Whitbread II); extracts from magazines and books; and circulars; etc. While the topics in these documents concentrate on horses, hounds, hunting and several detailed accounts of particular hunts, some correspondence also deals with local matters and politics. An early account of a hunt saboteur is reprinted from a book of reminiscences. He seems to have been a resident of a lunatic asylum in Bedford – but the account may be apocryphal.

There is a list of masters of the Oakley hunt from 1798 to 1915. A map, taken from J. and C. Walker’s county map of the north and west of Bedfordshire and neighbouring Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, shows the places of meeting of the Oakley Hunt in 1850.

Tentang Penulis

Joyce Godber (1906-1999) was Bedfordshire-born.  Following a history degree, she spent a few years teaching, then worked at Oxford University Press.  She was  assistant secretary at the Institute of Historical Research before becoming clerk of the records, then County Archivist of Bedfordshire (1946-68).  She was general editor of BHRS (1946-76) and an active member of the Society of Archivists and the British Records Association.  She planned the transfer of the record office to its new premises, which took place in 1969, the year in which her History of Bedfordshire was published.