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Country map


How to use this map

The map can be zoomed in and out by clicking on the '+' (zoom in) and '—' (zoom out) buttons or using the scroll-wheel on a mouse. The map can be panned up, down, left and right by dragging the map.

Clicking your mouse on one of the markers will cause a 'balloon' to open with more details. Some markers just display a name, and for these markers moving your mouse off the marker will close the balloon window. Other markers display a photo and an extended text description; these balloon windows remain displayed even when your mouse moves off the marker (this is to allow you to use the mini scroll bar which appears in some balloon windows), and for these markers you should click the 'X' in the top right-hand corner of the balloon window to close it.
To avoid clutter on the map where, in places, markers would otherwise jostle to be visible, some markers are not displayed until the map has been zoomed in sufficiently.
The meaning of each marker symbol is:


Kennels, Kirby Bellars Coverts the QH owns Neutral (shared) coverts
Meet venues Meet venues. Coverts and other points of interest Other coverts and points of interest  
Location finder: just click on a location in the list below: the site's marker will appear in the centre of the map and a balloon will open that points to the marker. Some sites have detailed descriptions and photos. A name in square brackets [] below refers to a covert that was owned by the hunt but later sold.
The boundary of the Quorn Hunt country is drawn in cream/orange, and markers highlight points of interest. The boundary is the traditional one from A.H. Swiss's 1898 map but modified by later authoritative maps from various sources, especially those kindly loaned by the late Mrs Ann Reid-Scott of Scalford. The country currently hunted has inevitably changed in places due to road-building (notably the M1), house building around Leicester and industrial development. These changes are summarised below.
The country has long been divided into four sections: Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, and these are displayed on the map when partly 'zoomed in' (notches 10 and 11 on the left-hand zoom slider). These traditional sections are somewhat elastic: after the 2013-14 season the QH ceased regular hunting on Saturday, and some of the Saturday country is now hunted on Tuesday. In the eastern side of the country, the River Wreake — from Melton to Quorn — divides the Monday country in the north from the Friday country in the south. In the western side of the country, the Ashby to Loughborough road divides the Saturday country in the north from the Tuesday country in the south. The Tuesday country is now essentially the Charnwood Forest area south-west of Quorn since the southern part of the country around Enderby and Narborough is bisected E-W by the M69 and N-S by the Lutterworth Road (A426) and the M1, and juts into Leicester via the Rivers Sence and Soar and the Grand Union Canal. This bottom end of the Tuesday country was formerly Fernie country and has had a chequered history. As with the rest of the Fernie country, it originally belonged to the Quorn, was loaned to (in order) W.W. Tailby, Sir Bache Cunard and C.W.B. Fernie and finally given to the Fernie Hunt on the death of Mr Fernie in 1919. However, the Fernie ceased to hunt this isolated piece of country in 1906 and it was ceded back to the Quorn until 1930 when it was lent to the South Atherstone who returned it in 1935 as unhuntable. It remains unclear whether the original boundary which lies between Huncote and Narborough followed the 'River Soar' route shown on the map or whether it followed a N-S route nearer Huncote 0.5km further west, and whether Croft Road (which swings below Cosby) is the southernmost boundary (as shown on the map) or whether the latter lay slightly further south to include Cosby Spinnies that were regarded in the 19th century as the southernmost draw in the Tuesday country. There is a further older boundary (Swiss, 1898) that runs all the way from Cosby to Ashby roughly one mile North-East of the boundary shown on the map and which runs up Forest Road Narborough and passes through Kirby Muxloe, Ratby, Hugglescote, Snibston and Ravenstone.
The northern boundary of the country is largely the River Trent going north west towards Nottingham. Just before West Bridgeford, where Clifton Boulevard crosses the Trent, the boundary turns sharp south down Fairham Brook (a tributary of the Trent), does a U-turn between Gotham and Bunny, and straggles generally east following a variety of topographical features (some of which no longer exist) until it joins the River Smite (the Belvoir boundary) just below Colston Bassett. The north-south boundary is then with the Belvoir until it hits Melton and then with the Cottesmore until it hits the A47 in the south at Billesdon. The boundary then swings sharp west following the A47 — the boundary with the Fernie — to Leicester. The country boundary in urban Leicester is complex and can only be followed on the map. West of Leicester, the boundary of the Tuesday country with the former Atherstone (which ceased hunting in 2019) follows a complex route north west. At Ashby, the boundary finally veers north east to join the Trent, following the boundary with the former Meynell and South Staffs which ceased hunting in 2023.
Lastly, please be patient as the map loads — there is a great deal going on behind the scenes to provide you with a unique way to explore the Quorn country. The boundary alone consists of around 3200 points (with each point being two 16-digit latitude/longitude numbers).

Coverts

The QH has 14 coverts in Leicestershire, 13 mature ones and one — Farrins — planted in 2011 in memory of one of the Hunt's most distinguished professional huntsmen Michael Farrin who died in 2008 (Farrins is not shown on the map as it is still under development). They vary in size and total almost 200 acres. All of the coverts are protected and maintained by the Quorn, ensuring the countryside is a more beautiful place to observe, and is a suitable environment where wildlife, plants and insects can flourish.
The Quorn Hunt has planted thousands of new trees and erected miles of fencing and through the annual hedgelaying competition and the planting of many thousands of quickthorns, we encourage the retention of the hedgerows of Leicestershire for the future.
Our coverts now contain some fascinating flora and fauna. This would not have been possible if the Quorn had not undertaken its massive long term planting and upkeep programme. The Quorn Hunt’s long term policy is to continue to look after the interests of the countryside.

Changes to the hunted country

In Melton Mowbray, the true historical boundary is tenuous as the boundaries of the Quorn, Cottesmore and Belvoir notionally meet in the Market Place and parts of the River Eye form boundaries for all three. Coming from the Stapleford direction, the River Eye enters the town alongside the railway, meets the Scalford Brook as it passes the Mars (formerly Pedigree Petfoods) plant, and follows the railway under the bridge that carries the A606 Melton-to-Oakham road. (For the three 'countries' to meet in the Market Place, the Cottesmore/Belvoir boundary would have to follow Sherrard Street as far as Thorpe End under which Scalford Brook is now culverted, and then Scalford Brook until it meets the River Eye, but no documentary evidence for this has been found.) A commonly depicted Quorn/Cottesmore boundary (and the one shown on this map) follows the River Eye westward from the railway bridge, then under the railway and northwards through Play Close, past the front of Egerton Lodge to join Asfordby Road just west of the present Leisure Centre and then back towards Melton to join Nottingham Road. A variant of this route not shown on this map but typically shown on maps dating from the 1940s and 1950s shows the section from Leicester Road bridge as following Wilton Road towards Nottingham Road (instead of passing in front of Egerton Lodge), but this is clearly a boundary of convenience rather than the traditional one since Wilton Road was only constructed in 1928. But to make things even more complex, the now-vanished Melton-to-Oakham canal (1795 — 1847) also closely followed the course of the River Eye to a now-filled-in canal basin sited where the Melton - Oakham railway bridge was later built, and the Leicester-to-Melton canal also ran through Play Close; so it is difficult to have the last word on exactly where the boundary originally lay. These boundaries are of academic interest within the centre of Melton as the hunts meet on neutral ground (formerly the Market Place and now at the east end of Play Close on a site that is technically in Belvoir country) at the invitation of the Town Estate — a charity which, in passing, pre-dates all three hunts...
Several purportedly definitive boundary maps have been produced over the past hundred years or so which, more often than not, differ quite widely. What is certain, however, is that the de facto boundaries and the list of neutral coverts have changed significantly over the last two hundred years.
Notable differences in the boundary are (clockwise from Melton) the route through Melton itself (see above), Melton to Little Dalby (via Sandy Lane and then a clockwise swerve around Gartree Hill which would otherwise be in Cottesmore country, versus taking the Melton-to-Oakham A606 and then following Burton Brook towards Little Dalby lakes); the area around John O'Gaunt (the covert, not the village); the route through urban Leicester, the southern cutoff west of Leicester (some more recent maps show the boundary cutting E-W straight through the centre of Leicester following the Leicester to Burton railway all the way to Ashby); the route from the southernmost point of the Tuesday country at Cosby to Ashby (on later maps this boundary is shown as mostly following the track of the Leicester to Burton railway, but the correct historical boundary is a little further east following a variety of topographical features and is easier to follow on the map than to explain); the route either around or through Staunton Harold reservoir (the boundary was there long before the reservoir was built); and the extremely convoluted route from Nottingham to Colston Bassett which historically followed many topographical features such as streams which no longer exist: note, for example, the roughly SW - NE stretch south of Ruddington from Gotham Moor to Plumtree whose logic can only be understood by reference to early OS maps.
When the Atherstone ceased hunting in 2019, its country was divided between adjacent hunts. The QH was allocated country from Stanton by Bridge (just north of Melbourne) westwards to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Measham and thence to Cosby Spinneys south of Blaby