LORD Ashton of Hyde, who rode with the Heythrop Hunt for 70 years, has died aged 81.

The former director of Barclays Bank would go to his office early to open post and dictate replies, then hunt all day and return, in muddy breeches, to sign the typed letters.

He was treasurer of the hunt, which covers Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, and, with his wife Pauline, joint president of its pony club.

His elder son Henry – who succeeds to the peerage – became a joint master in 2007. His father had also been master of the Heythrop.

A special lawn meet was held at his Gloucestershire farm when his age, combined with that of his faithful mount Sparbuck, reached 100.

The Ashton family were cotton pioneers in the small town of Hyde, east of Manchester. In 1800, six Ashton brothers were involved in the foundations of a business which grew to be the town's biggest employer, engaged in spinning, weaving and calico printing.

Thomas John Ashton, grandson of the first baron, was born on November 19 1926. His mother was a granddaughter of the first Lord Crawshaw.

He went to Eton, and was commissioned into the 11th Hussars just before the end of the Second World War, having won the Sword of Honour at Sandhurst.

He served in the army of occupation in Germany and rose to the rank of captain. On demobilisation he went up to New College, Oxford, to read History.

On graduation he was fast-tracked to become a director at Barclays Bank.

In his early years with the bank, Lord Ashton was seconded to Barclays Dominion, Colonial & Overseas, serving in Africa.

On his return, in 1957, he became a junior local director in Oxford. During his Oxford years, Lord Ashton served as territorial officer of the Royal Gloucester Hussars.

In 1968 Lord Ashton moved to Manchester to become senior local director and chairman of the local board, and in the following year he joined the bank's main board in London.

Having succeeded his father in 1983, he took his seat in the House of Lords, but never made a maiden speech. He retired from Barclays in 1987.

Tom Ashton married, in 1957, Pauline Trewlove Brackenbury, whom he met at a dance at Sezincote, the Gloucestershire home of the Kleinwort banking family. The Ashtons had two sons and two daughters.