Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i The Field

“There was a general assumption that anyone prosecuted by the RSPCA was a ‘bad apple’” IN 2016 the world re-evaluated a great deal of received wisdom and made unexpected decisions that may have fundamental consequences for life as we know it. It is not a unique occurrence; history is littered with such moments of pause, in which truths that have been held as immutable are questioned. Tibetan Buddhists describe such opportunities for decision making as “Bardo” moments. Brexit, the Trump Presidency and the continued conflict in the Middle East all provide, in their own way, the opportunity for humanity to choose how to react. In a smaller but in many ways no less impactful sense the RSPCA is going through such a moment of introspection, reflection and decision making. The…

MOBILITY SOLUTIONS With reference to James Campbell’s letter (Shooting post-paralysis, January issue), I was lucky enough to know the late Dave Carter of Sharrow, Ripon. Dave was a victim of polio, wore calipers and had very limited mobility. He equipped himself with a six-wheel Argo in the back of which was a stoutly made swivel chair with weighted legs. Dave drove himself to the shoot with the Argo on a trailer. On arrival, he unloaded the “steed” (often with some assistance) and from there on he was independent, being able to drive the Argo to his peg or butt. Depending on the terrain, he could either shoot from the back of the Argo or, with assistance, unload the chair and shoot from it on the ground. I hope this gives…

Bawdsey Manor is billed as “one of Suffolk’s most exciting opportunities” and this 144-acre estate has bags of potential. It is a Grade II*- listed manor house and estate on the Suffolk Heritage Coast, with the house dating back to 1886. Radar technology was invented here and among the estate’s buildings are a radar transmitter block and a receiver block, both of which are listed. The formal gardens are also Grade II-listed. Bawdsey Manor was once a school and lends itself to a number of potential alternative uses and development, subject to planning consents. As well as the main house there is a garden cottage, further self-contained cottages, a clock tower complex and additional residential and leisure facilities, including a gym, playing fields, tennis courts, a squash court, a water…

“He had last seen grey partridges on the farm back in 1981” When asked to write a report on a day with the Portloughan Shoot, County Down, in early November last year, I was unaware the Purdey Awards judging panel had already decided to present owner David Sandford with the prestigious Gold Award at the annual ceremony later in the month. The judges came to their decision in recognition of Sandford’s exceptional vision and leadership in successfully reestablishing a sustainable population of wild grey partridges, classified as extinct in Northern Ireland since 1992, on his 225-acre farm and for persuading 21 neighbouring farmers to support him across a further 1,800 acres. This remarkable achievement is part of an ongoing conservation programme that began 20 years ago, as I was to…

The battered old teddy bear, dry-cleaned and with replacement ears, finds a new life at the local children’s hospital. Those ’70s flares, cleverly scissored and stitched by your teenager, become a cool pair of spray-ons. A war-time utility kitchen chair, now hand-painted, holds pride of place in the conservatory. There’s something energising about watching these pre-loved items become re-loved treasures. Sadly, the future for old British side-by-side shotguns is not so rosy. Boxlocks from lesser-known makers, perhaps a bit loose in the action with paper-thin barrels, once saw better days. An H Beesley or an Army & Navy lent to a teenage son with the instruction not to waste any of those half-dozen cartridges, then cherished into adulthood, now finds itself supplanted by a European over-and-under. Yet once upon a…

IF you mention fox-hunting in America, most people think of Virginia. Yet the sport is thriving on the vast prairies of the West, where coyotes lead long, straight runs across ranches thousands of acres in size. “The future of fox-hunting in America is the West,” believes Tyce Mothershead, huntsman of the Tejon Hounds in California. “We have the space and we have the coyote. It’s perfect.” Catching my breath after a blisteringly fast run, I had to agree. As at home roping cattle as he is hunting hounds, Mothershead came west from the North Hills Hunt in Iowa and has embraced life on the 270,000-acre Tejon Ranch, where the hunt was founded in 2012 after the West Hills, famous for welcoming Hollywood royalty Walt Disney and Spencer Tracy, was swallowed…

IF Theresa May were looking for a “little gift” to impress the new, follicley challenged president on the block for his big Inauguration Day celebration in January, she need have looked no further than the wonderful selection of weapons on offer at Bonhams on 30 November. Forget the Bendicks Mint Collection or the lavender soap for Melania, surely no gun-loving, testosterone-fuelled American president could resist re-cementing that ever-so-special (ahem) relationship had our Prime Minister only thought to present him with a gold-decorated, 1851 Model “Navy” Colt revolver, complete with its accessories, in its original, velvet-lined, fitted mahogany case as a “house-warming” present? The fact that the bling decoration is more school of Saddam Hussein than the normal Sam Colt offering could only have been a plus for the owner of…

“The lack of felt recoil with the carbonfibre stock was remarkable; just a gentle shove” TECHNICAL innovation does not always result in functional improvement. In this case, however, Sauer has clearly studied every aspect of a take-down rifle to produce an extraordinarily well-conceived, well-engineered, practical product. Launched 12 months ago but new to the UK market, the 404 is a fully modular take-down rifle to which interchangeable barrels and stocks can be added according to the shooter’s preference or the quarry being stalked. Of immediate curiosity is the front sling swivel, which doubles as a purpose-built, slide-out universal key. This is used to remove the barrel or stock, and even adjust the cheek comb on the stock via a recessed screw in the recoil pad. When changing stock or barrel…

“‘I spent the whole weekend just watching them and getting to know them’” WHAT is wildlife and sporting art actually about? This question is not as obvious as it may appear. Sometimes it is about art – the wonderful painterly pieces of old and contemporary masters. Sometimes it is about sport or nature. It may even be about politics, when the artist seeks to convey a message about his subject matter. Surprisingly, it is rare for wildlife and sporting art actually to be about the animals. Zaza Shelley’s work is absolutely about the animals. Without ego or pretension, her execution and technique are dedicated to depicting the inner truth of the animal itself. Backgrounds are minimal. Expressions are massive. Shelley agrees: “I like to capture the character of the animal…

LEICESTER AND RUTLAND FEDERATION OF YOUNG FARMERS CLUBS With many of their members working on farms in the middle of nowhere, the LRFYFC decided to bare all to raise money for the Air Ambulance Service. The cheeky young farmers threw themselves into a series of daring photoshoots to create the risqué calendar – often raising a few eyebrows among dog walkers. The calendar costs £10, plus p&p, from www.leicsyfc.org.uk. The Field has contributed to the cause.…

“As the second bird folded the first hit me square in the sternum” 1 MALLARD The mallard is our most familiar duck and the species most studied; the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s investigations into duckling survival are key to our knowledge of wildfowl conservation. Way back in the 1960s, and faced with a “new” wildlife habitat in the form of flooded gravel pits, the Trust worked out that nesting success could be improved using artificial nest sites, but duckling survival was still low. It became clear that, just as partridge chicks need insects, so do ducklings. Indeed, the peak hatch of wild mallard populations is synchronised with the emergence of midges, so that the ducklings can gorge on them as they break through the surface. The trouble is,…

It is a long, six-hour drive between Addis Ababa and the small town of Dinsho, which serves as both gateway and headquarters to the Bale Mountains National Park nearly 400km south of the Ethiopian capital; a remote, high plateau of Afro-Alpine terrain drained by crystal-clear streams where the heather grows as tall as trees. Most visitors come to see the endemic wildlife, such as Menelik’s bushbuck, the graceful Nyla antelope and the jackal-like Ethiopian wolf, which has the distinction of being the rarest canid on the planet. But for me, these animals are an unexpected bonus, for I have heard that rivers draining the high plateau are home in their middle reaches to prolific populations of wild rainbow trout. On arrival at the sumptuous Bale Mountain Lodge I am welcomed…

2012 TASTE THE DIFFERENCE VINEDOS BARRIHUELO RIOJA CRIANZA (£7, Sainsbury’s) Good value Rioja that’s spot on with roast stuffed kid. 2012 CORNEY & BARROW CLARET (£9.25, Corney & Barrow) Classy house claret. 2014 KUMEU VILLAGE HAND-HARVESTED PINOT NOIR (£10, Wine Society) Class in a glass from NZ’s fabled Brajkovich family. 2013 CHATEAU L’ERMITAGE, CUVEE SAINTE-CECILE (£11, D Byrne) Gloriously rich, flavoursome red from the south of France. 2012 DOMAINE DE TORRACCIA ROUGE (£14.60, Yapp Bros) Strikingly fine, earthy, herbal red from Corsica, home of barbecued goat. MOUNT GAY ECLIPSE RUM (£15, Tesco) From the oldest rum distillery of them all, ideal for rum punch.…

“The spare wheel gives away the fact that the Shogun means business: it’s a proper one” I make no apology for returning to the quest for a Land Rover Defender replacement. The “What are we going to drive?” question is the third most important out in the sticks at the moment, behind “What will the post-Brexit countryside look like?” and “Where can I find a decent pair of wellies?” The Shogun three-door Commercial is a strong contender. Mitsubishi has taken the popular “civilian” three-door, removed the back seats, put in a flat floor and a front grill and blacked out the rear windows. The result is a vast load space, accessed by an equally gargantuan rear door – anyone who has wrestled with getting anything of any width into the…

“Clad in her tight leather mini-skirt, she was confronted by a battery of winking headlights” FOLLOWING recent advice from the Institute of Fiscal Studies that pay levels are not likely to rise until the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse play Scrabble, I thought it wise to undertake some New Year economic contingency planning for 2017. Summoning the team together, I advised them of my cunning plan to deal with the consequences of post Donald and Brexit trade wars and financial meltdown. Rather than freezing or, better still, reducing their pay for the next 70 years we will go straight back to bondage and serfdom. Naworth will be transformed into a workers utopia, similar to that of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where we will share equally the food, produce and workload.…

Georgian Group celebrates 80th year An exhibition of contemporary British craft skills is being held at the Georgian Group in London from 2-25 February to celebrate the charity’s 80th anniversary. Titled Splendour! Art in Living Craftmanship, the 50 craftsmen taking part include historic paint specialists, stone carvers, gilders, picture frame makers, muralists, carpenters, architects and silk weavers. A programme of talks runs alongside the exhibition. On 7 February, Richard Humphries, founder of Humphries Weaving, will be discussing Silk – from China to Sudbury. Afterwards, Dominic Evans Freke, a director of de Gournay, will discuss the origins of chinoiserie wallpaper and its history to the present day. Other speakers include George Saumarez Smith, a director of Adam Architecture (14 February), and Tim Crawley, head of historic carving at City & Guilds…

A hedge-laying society in the south of England has had to increase places on its training days following heavy demand for courses. All of the training days run this winter by the South of England Hedge Laying Society (SEHLS) were sold out and there is a waiting list for next season’s courses for the first time. “There’s been a massive increase in interest over the past few years. We’re training more people than we’ve ever trained before,” said Phill Piddell, SEHLS’s membership, training and competition secretary. The Society runs four formal training days in October, November, December and January to encourage the next generation of hedge layers; the cost of £150 is now wavered for college students. Aware that more needs to be done to encourage younger cutters, the National…

Of all the English landscapes, none have changed so little in the past 200 years as the rural and sporting vales of South Shropshire. Drive from Craven Arms along the 17 miles of meandering Corvedale to Much Wenlock and, along the way, the settled estates of Burwarton, Delbury, Ship-ton, Morville and Acton Round are much as they were when Ironbridge nearby became the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Parallel to this fertile vale is Wenlock Edge itself, a dramatic escarpment that rises a thousand feet above sea level. At its Much Wenlock end, with long tracts of woodland on the horizon the only indication of its existence, sits the Willey Park estate, another fine example of absolute solidness and seclusion. The seat of successive Lord Foresters since 1740, the imposing…

“‘Active lifestyles have no time for outdated hearing equipment’” Tradition holds hard in the field. The kit we wear, the manners we adopt, the lives that thrum to the changing beat of the seasons. But the countryman or countrywoman is not a specimen set in aspic. Today you are much more likely to find the modern version next to you in the line or on the bank or at the meet, having checked the weather app on a smartphone, plugged in the sat nav to get there, and calling hands free on the way home to discussthe next day’s sport. The modern country man also has no need to be weighed down with tradition when it comes to help with his hearing. That is why the person spry enough and…

A pink dawn is breaking over the Santa Maria della Salute. Squadrons of cormorants are heading out across the lagoon like Lancaster bombers on a secret mission. Last night there had been a different view. An icy, January fog had got hold of this magnificent church and pushed it closer to our window at the other side of the Grand Canal. After a glass or two of champagne, it seemed as if we could reach out and burst its huge, Baroque domes. We are at the Gritti and from our suite in this 17th-century palazzo we gaze down on the comings and goings of boats, gondolas, water buses and other vessels on the canal. A funny place to go wildfowling, you might think. Not if you want to follow in…

“He was astounded to see a lad in a nightdress lying on the concrete floor” There exists in in our world a small group of people whose commitment to and zest for life gives them an uncanny ability to excel in not one but several fields of endeavour. Unsurprisingly, this gift occurs in less than 1% of our population and in the case of the individual, an enquiring mind has to ask: how did it start and when was this unique trait first noticed? For a young Frederick Courteney Selous, it could have emerged late on a winter’s night in 1865 when, at a school in the Midlands, a dormitory master doing his nightly rounds was astounded to walk through the doors of the first-form dormitory to find the windows…

IT would be easy to settle into a wistful, melancholy state at this time of year, missing all that comes with those jolly sporting weekends and days away. The camaraderie and competition, the luscious food and drink laid on by generous hosts and, of course, that satisfying end-of-day feeling that you shot well and your dog behaved. Fear not! The game season is not quite over and solace can be found in what should by now be a bulging trophy chest… your freezer. As there is likely to be an assorted bag of quarry, these recipes are perfect for using up a mix of game. I love to use the entire carcass as there is so much flavour in it and also it is important not to waste anything. These…

“For the money, I think you would have to go a long way to find a better, more elegant gun than the Exmoor” THE test gun this month is intended for high-bird work and has been imported and developed by ASI of Snape. It’s unashamedly a big gun and weighs in at 8lb – quite a lot to heft for a day in the field but no heavier than many 32in Perazzis, Mirokus and similar that are brought into use now to bring down the rocketeers. I might say it also looks more refined, more like a game gun than many of the clay-busting machines to which some now resort for serious high-bird work. Edward King of ASI notes: “The concept behind the project is to provide a dedicated ‘high-bird’…

“In February, a field scars and tell-tale vehicle tracks will remain deep into spring” IN the short, dark days of February the landscape is quiet, still, mothballed; the vitality of seasons past has moved into deep senescence. Autumn fruits have long gone and any sensible life forms are tucked away in hibernation. The farming calendar follows suit and weeks pass without any apparent growth in the dormant winter cereals, stubbles and pastures. There is a visible scarcity of livestock in the fields, limited to a few groups on over-wintering pastures, fodder roots or kale. The twice-daily pilgrimage of a dairy cow from field to parlour is temporarily on hold. While some holdings are capable of out-wintering stock, others look like the Somme within a few days of foul weather. When…