About a quarter of a million people turned out to support Boxing Day hunts taking place around the UK, according to the Countryside Alliance.

The lobby group said more than 300 meets were held across the country on one of the most popular dates in the hunting calendar.

Hunting with foxes was made illegal more than a decade ago and artificially-laid trails are used instead - and anti-hunt campaigners say the ban should remain in place after suggestions there could be a fresh vote.

The alliance said one of the biggest turnouts was at the meet of the Heythrop hunt in Oxfordshire, which attracted about 6,000 supporters to Chipping Norton square.

Joint-master Vanessa Lambert said: "The support we have from our local community is absolutely fantastic.

"Nothing beats riding into the square and seeing the thousands of people who have turned out to see us. This is the day when we get to thank them for their continuing support."

The hunts took place after a poll, conducted on behalf of the League Against Cruel Sports, said eight out of ten people believe fox hunting should remain illegal.

The survey said 83% of respondents thought the ban should remain in place and opposition to legalising fox hunting has risen from 72% in 2008, according to the League.

Supporters of fox hunting are pushing for a new vote on the ban, which was promised by the coalition government following the 2010 general election.

Peter Morritt, general secretary for the Quorn Hunt, in Leicestershire, said there were 200 riders and 3,000 people who came to support the hunt which has been going for more than 300 years.

He said: "It was tremendous. We are very much part of the Leicestershire rural community and we have tremendous support from not only the farming community but everyone really."

Speaking about the ban on fox hunting and whether it could be repealed, he said: "I think it would be nice to see it overturned, but I'm open and people have different views.

"What came across very strongly when the ban came in was that people wished the hunt to remain in place as it has done for years."

Protests were reported to have taken place at some hunts, with the BBC saying "angry scuffles" had broken out at the hunt in Lewes, East Sussex.

Director of campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports Tom Quinn said: "Hunting is a tradition that no-one but a small minority wants, needs or cares about any more, and those doing the hunting need to accept that and move on."

Rock musician and founder of the Save Me Trust Brian May said: "It's clear now that the ban on fox hunting is here to stay, and rightly so, of course.

"The British public, as represented by their currently-elected MPs, will not tolerate a backward step into the old barbaric ways."