TRADITIONAL festive season hunt meets have been given a huge and warm welcome everywhere from Wiveliscombe to Exford in the heart of Exmoor.

A Government move to ban trail hunting in the wake of campaigning by anti-bloodsports groups appeared to have stirred residents to turn out in even greater numbers for the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day meets.

In Wiveliscombe, The Square was by noon packed with people for a New Year’s Day meet of the newly-merged Vale of Taunton and Banwell Harriers, which is an amalgamation of Taunton Vale Harriers and the Weston and Banwell pack.

It was a continuation of the decades-old Chipstable Hunt’s tradition of meeting in Wiveliscombe, but instead of being held on Boxing Day it took place on January 1 because of the merger.

The merged hunt had met for Boxing Day in Axbridge.

A handful of hunt saboteurs turned up in Wiveliscombe and ‘exchanged words’ with some of the locals but were not able to disrupt the proceedings.

Elsewhere, anti-hunt protestors appeared few and far between as hunt supporters turned out in their hundreds to back the meets.

Many families took along young children to mix with the hounds and share a saddle with some of the hunt riders.

In Tiverton also, where the town council controversially voted to support a motion saying the hunt was no longer welcome, Fore Street was lined with crowds several hundred strong who cheered and clapped the Tiverton Foxhounds as they rode through on Boxing Day.

Minehead Harriers met on Boxing Day in Wheddon Cross, the highest village on Exmoor, and one resident said they had never seen so many people attending in the car park of the Rest and Be Thankful Inn.

The Devon and Somerset Staghounds were cheered by crowds on both Boxing Day and New Year’s Day when their traditional meets were held in the car park of the Exmoor White Horse Inn, in Exford.

It was a similar picture in Dulverton for a Boxing Day meet of the Dulverton Farmers Hunt.