A crowd nearly 1,000 strong packed into Wymondham Market Place this morning to see off the traditional Boxing Day hunt.

Organisers the Dunston Harriers believed the crowd could have been a record turnout, proving the hunt's popularity with the rural community despite a ban on fox hunting introduced by the Hunting Act in 2005.

Brad Webb, master of the Dunston Harriers, said: 'It is a great turnout. You can see how important it is just by looking about today and we are a small percentage of the people attending hunts across the country today.'