Chris Power
- 10 hours ago
- 4 min read
Location: Great Barton, Suffolk
Affiliations: Suffolk Hunt Sabs
Chris Power is a menacing member of the Suffolk Hunt sabs. With an "unparalleled level of arrogance", Power flies his drone across the countryside - careful, of course, to remove the evidence before the lens swings back his way. Plumber by day, hunt sab with drone by weekend, Power has built up a reputation for being quite the annoyance in the Eastern Hunting groups.
The Coward’s Eye in The Sky
Sources tell BTM that Power flies his drone within metres of riders on horseback, has circled the hunt kennels at six in the morning while grooms and the huntsman's partner were inside, and has reportedly used the footage as a taunt: "You should see the videos I have on my phone of your girlfriend." The Air Navigation Order 2016 is unambiguous: Article 241 stipulates that no person may recklessly or negligently cause or permit an aircraft to endanger any person or property. Horses are flight animals, so a drone flown within metres of a rider is not a grey area. It is precisely the kind of reckless endangerment Article 241 was written to address, and a conviction carries the prospect of an unlimited fine, up to five years in prison, or both.
A Provocateur Saboteur
There is a striking hypocrisy in the way Power conducts himself whilst out with the hunt. Sources tell BTM that he is a model of restraint when cameras are pointed in his direction, quiet and careful not to push his luck. The moment they are switched off, however, a rather different picture emerges. He will, according to those who have witnessed it, drive wherever he pleases in his black pick-up truck, following legal hunts across private lanes and onto private property, with an electric bike deployed wherever the vehicle cannot follow. A curious approach for a man who spends so much time pointing the camera at everyone else.
Playing Both Sides of the Field
Something doesn’t quite add up. On one hand, Power cuts a familiar figure in his black uniform, staring down riders engaged in a lawful, centuries-old pursuit. On the other, a now-deleted photograph on his sister's Facebook page shows him leading what appears to be a show pony with considerable purpose - a collared shirt, serious expression, eyes on the prize.
The contradiction is hard to ignore. The showing and breeding world Power appears happy to participate in is, as any country person knows, entirely inseparable from hunting. The horses, the yards, the people, they are the same ecosystem, bound by the same traditions and sustained by the same community. To embrace one while dedicating your weekends to dismantling the other is not a principled stand. It is simply incoherent.
Pipe Down and Turn up
Power runs a small plumbing company around Bury St Edmunds, but how can one run a successful plumbing and heating company when you’re too busy sabotaging lawful hunts? Customers have noticed a drop in business over the last few months, a decline that aligns rather neatly with the trail-hunting season.
One reviewer writes: "Disappointing and unprofessional experience... perhaps if you responded to emails and missed calls as quickly as you do to negative reviews, the negative review wouldn't have been made in the first place." Another records that when they called to ask where he was, Power's response was: "I was sitting here thinking what I should be doing, it didn't get put in my diary." He then put the phone down. A third is rather more succinct: "Chris never turned up today... my bath is still leaking."
One can only speculate as to what was keeping him on those particular mornings, though the pattern is a curious one. A man who can reliably be found in a field at dawn, disrupting the lawful activities of others with considerable dedication and punctuality, somehow cannot locate his diary when a paying customer is waiting at home. The hunts, it seems, get the early start. The leaking bath can wait.
A Family Affair
Sabotaging hunts, it would appear, is something of a tradition in the Power family.
Becky Power, Chris's sister, has also been spotted out in the field. It doesn’t take long, however, to find something curious on her Facebook page: a photograph of two women turned out in full hunting attire, coats and stocks tied, just so, the unmistakable uniform of hunting women. What is harder to explain is why someone who, once celebrated a practice so publicly, can now spend her weekends disrupting the very thing she appeared to cherish.
The family portrait does not end there. Their brother, John Power, is an emergency police dispatcher with Bedfordshire Police. A man whose professional life is dedicated to upholding the law, with a brother and sister who appear to spend their weekends testing its limits. Whether his colleagues are aware of the family's extracurricular activities is a question worth asking.
Flushed Out
There is a certain irony in the story of Chris Power. A man who has dedicated considerable time and energy to pursuing others across the Suffolk countryside, recording them, following them, circling their homes before sunrise, has left behind a trail far easier to follow than he might ever have anticipated. He turns up reliably where he isn’t wanted and yet cannot seem to locate his diary when a paying customer is waiting. He is a man of considerable dedication, just not to his own trade. For a man so preoccupied with watching others, he appears to have given surprisingly little thought to who might be watching him.
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