THE Hurworth Hunt is one of the oldest in the North-East, but it celebrates its 200th anniversary amid uncertainty as the Government tries to work out what it dares to do with the sport's future.

It is ironic, really, that the Government is led by Tony Blair, because it is from a village in his Sedgefield constituency that the Hurworth takes its name.

In the late-18th Century the renowned Colling brothers, Charles and Robert, were leading the Georgian craze of breeding super-large cattle. At their farm at Ketton, to the north of Darlington, they bred the Ketton Ox and The Comet - great "mountains of beef" which toured the country showing off their gargantuan size.

While Charles Colling lived at Ketton, brother Robert lived on The Green at Hurworth. There he kept his pack of hounds - the Hurworth pack. Initially, the hounds' main quarry was hares, but if they disturbed a fox, they would chase that, too.

In 1803, when the Ketton Ox was at the height of its national superstardom, Mr Colling sold his hounds to the Wilkinson brothers, of Neasham Abbey (which is how the Fox and Hounds pub a couple of hundred yards down the road gets its name).

The Wilkinsons - Tommy, Matty and Lozzy - followed their hounds on horseback, so this became a full-blown hunt: the "Hurworth Hunt", because although the huntsmen came from Neasham, the hounds came from Hurworth.

In the early days, the people in the Hurworth's area were informed of the hunt's programme from the pulpit, because the date and times of the meets were read out during Sunday service.

Hunting was very popular among the clergy - tragically popular, in fact.

The Reverend Marmaduke Theakston, 32-year-old son of the rector of Hurworth, was on the Boxing Day Hunt in 1823, crossing the Tees at Worsall, near Yarm, when his horse reared up. He was tossed into the river and his horse landed on top of him. He drowned.

The Wilkinsons were masters of the Hurworth until 1861, their country stretching from what is now the A66 connecting Darlington with Stockton, down through Northallerton and Osmotherley, towards Thirsk.

They were succeeded by the famous racehorse breeder James Sawrey Cookson, of Neasham Hall.

His most famous horse was Formosa, which won the St Leger, the Newmarket and Epsom Oaks and the 2,000 and 1,000 guineas in 1868. But Cookson's most famous day was probably May 29, 1861, when his horses Dundee and Kettledrum featured in the Derby.

Dundee started out as 3-1 favourite; Kettledrum was a 500-1 outsider. But Dundee got badly barged by another horse and hobbled home second on three legs. Kettledrum "stole along from Tattenham Corner and came down the final hill into the straight like a flash, a sight not to be forgotten".

Perhaps it was divine intervention that Kettledrum won, for Pope Pius IX had a tenner riding on him. The following day, £5,000 was despatched to the Vatican.

After Mr Cookson came William Forbes as the master of the Hurworth Hunt. He turned up from Ireland one day in the 1880s at Croft Spa Station, knowing no one in the district save the master of the neighbouring Bedale Hunt. However, he took over the Hurworth's horn and remained in charge until 1911.

For the last 50 years of the 19th Century, the Hurworth's hounds were kennelled off Strait Lane, in Hurworth. It was here, in 1897, that they came to the attention of the Privy Council in London.

The carcass of a cow from East Cowton was sent to the kennels as usual for food for the hounds. As it was being dissected, five pups rushed in and had an illicit feed. Next morning, they were dead.

The vet was called. He diagnosed anthrax poisoning.

By the evening, one of Mrs Cooper's cows in the neighbouring farm was also dead. The Privy Council was informed, and it immediately ordered liberal disinfection of the kennels and the surrounding area. This did the trick, and the Hurworth's anthrax outbreak accounted for no more than five pups and Mrs Cooper's cow.

In 1911, Mr Forbes was succeeded as huntmaster by Charles Henry Fitzroy, fourth Baron of Southampton.

In the Army, his lordship had been stationed in Ireland, where he had met, and married, Lady Hilda Dundas, daughter of the Marquess of Zetland. He had taken up residence at Blackwell Grange with a view to succeeding his father-in-law as master of the Zetland Hunt, but when Lord Barnard indicated he would like the post, Lord Southampton withdrew and took over the Hurworth.

He moved into Rockliffe Park in Hurworth - where Middlesbrough FC's training ground is now - and built kennels in the grounds so that he was able to lie in bed and hear the hounds "singing".

In 1922, the South Durham Hunt ran into difficulties, and Lord Southampton was persuaded to become its Master as well.

This arrangement lasted for a couple of years, until Lord Southampton resigned from the Hurworth to concentrate on the South Durham Hunt.

Then, for the first time in 150 years, the Hurworth hounds moved south of the Tees to Knayton Moor, between Northallerton and Thirsk.

But the new master, Hubert Dorrington, found himself in financial difficulty.

The hunt crumbled in 1926, and in March 1927 the hounds - all 46 couple of them ("huntspeak" for 83 animals) - were sold at Rugby for £1,400.

New money was found. Colonel Maurice Bell of Mount Grace Priory spent nearly £6,000 on kennels at the village of West Rounton, where the hunt's headquarters are today, and Lieutenant Colonel Gordon arrived from the South Dorset to take over as master in 1928.

He brought 20 couple of hounds with him - English foxhounds - and the Hurworth remains only one of three hunts in England to use this breed.

Initially, Lt Col Gordon was unpopular. One who had hunted with him in Dorset wrote to warn the Hurworth: "He is a very poor huntsman. He is as silent as the grave in drawing a covert, but what I dislike most is the way he whistles to his hounds as if it were time for parlour tricks. I can't stick that. He can't 'holloa' for monkey nuts.

"There is no music of the chase with Gordon. A fox away is signalled by a lot of short raps on the horn like the back-firing of a motorbike. There is none of that riot of melody which is better than any spur to a hunter."

From 1936 to 1971, the Hurworth's master was Eleanor Mary Furness - or "Miss Mary" - of Otterington Hall, near Thirsk. Miss Mary came from the Hartlepool Furness family of shipowners. Only on Boxing Day did she allow the hunt to meet at a pub, and she always rode side-saddle.

She was an authority on shorthorn cattle and English foxhounds, and although she died in 1990, she is still remembered as the person who built the Hurworth back up to what it was before its collapse in 1927.

Today, there are 47 subscribers to the Hurworth Hunt, 300 foot-followers and two masters: Peter Dennis, the Saturday master, and Keith Balbach, the Tuesday master.

When they meet on Tuesday at Neasham Abbey, they will be commemorating 200 years of history, and wondering how many more the Government will allow.