The Field April 2017

“My story began as a substitute gundog for my father, who took a season’s shooting in Yorkshire” IF you are one of our many readers who is not a chap, then what are you? A babe? Probably not. Perhaps a girl? Or a lady, a love or a lass? Maybe the sturdier sounding female fits the bill; or woman (listen for the roar)? Does it really matter what we call ourselves when we head out into the field to shoot, hunt, fish, stalk, wildfowl, pick-up or pop clays? When we decide to shoot a wild boar, put our lives in the balance over a line of hedges or wait patiently on the riverbank for a take, does it matter if someone calls us a babe or madam? Put simply, no,…

DAVID FISH OF CONSERVATION PIECES ON JOHN SKEAPING’S WORK “ ‘I was captivated. His picture The Finishwas so simple but so full of the movement and passion of racing’ ” ARTISTS should lead unusual lives, it’s part of the job description, and the world of racing too is all the more beguiling because it is so, well, racy. When an artist is living and depicting horse and dog racing, sparks fly. John Skeaping and his first wife, Barbara Hepworth, were art’s golden couple in the 1920s. He was handsome and talented, producing dramatic sculpture and painting, notably a series of art deco animals for Wedgwood. She was beautiful and fêted. By 1931 their marriage was over; soon after, Skeaping became an intelligence officer in the SAS during the Second World…

Garry back in the flow to feed the Tay Water started flowing in March on the River Garry for the first time in 60 years following a landmark salmon conservation agreement to restore the flows on the vital Tay tributary. The 10-mile section of the Garry has been “dry” since the 1950s, when the entire flow of the river was used for the production of hydro-electricity. Engineering work funded by SSE will see gates put into the Struan Weir to allow the water to flow again. In future, the abstraction will stop when the river gets below a certain level. “There is no other project like this in Britain. A whole new river is being created,” said Dr David Summers, director of the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board (TDSFB). Once…

MOORLAND BUTTERFLIES SAVED A project on Exmoor, Bodmin and Dartmoor to save three of the UK’s most threatened butterflies has been awarded a grant of £318,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Butterfly Conservation’s “All the Moor Butterflies” project hopes to reverse the decline of the high brown fritillary, heath fritillary and marsh fritillary. The habitat restoration will also benefit the rare narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth. DESSIE STAMP Steeplechasing legend Desert Orchid is one of eight champion racehorses featured on special stamps being released by the Royal Mail in April. Dessie is captured in action winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1989. The special stamp programme for 2017 celebrates the “Best of British” across a range of subjects, including songbirds, classic toys, landmark buildings, First World War: 1917 and Christmas. BIG-GAME HUNTER’S…

A unique display of 2,000 working clocks is on show at Nostell Priory from 25 March to celebrate the work of clockmaker John Harrison, whose father worked on the West Yorkshire estate. The self-taught Harrison spent his early years crafting clocks entirely from wood. One of his only three surviving early wooden longcase clocks created in 1717 is on show in the billiards room at Nostell. Harrison later became known as one of England’s greatest inventors, having created the marine chronometer that made it possible to establish longitude at sea. The clocks in the “Harrison’s Garden” have been collected by artist Luke Jerram and include 500 donated by Nostell locals. “For me, Harrison’s Garden is an imagined landscape, a garden of clocks. It is a glimpse of a surreal fictional…

1 National Terrier Club Championship Show Stafford County Showground, Weston, Stafford. www.nationalterrier.co.uk 4-9 The Spring Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair Collections from 150-plus exhibitors. Battersea Park, London. www.decorativefair.com 7-9 RHS Cardiff Flower Show Bute Park, Cardiff Castle, Cardiff. www.rhs.org.uk 8 Randox Health Grand National Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool. Tel 0344 5793001 9 Tedworth Point-to-Point Barbury Racecourse, Marlborough, Wiltshire. First race 1.15pm. www.tedworthpointtopoint.co.uk 16-17 Kelmarsh Country Show Kelmarsh Hall, Northamptonshire. www.kelmarshcountryshow.co.uk 17 Taunton Vale Point-to-Point Kingston St Mary, Taunton, Somerset. First race 2pm. www.pointingwessex.co.uk 17 South Shropshire Point-to-Point Eyton-on-Severn, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. First race 1pm. Tel 07977 015727; www.eyton-races.com 17 Vine and Craven Point-to-Point Hackwood Park, Basingstoke, Hampshire. www.vineandcravenhunt.co.uk 20 Champions Willberry Charity Race In aid of Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony Charity and the Bob Champion Cancer Trust. Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire. www.championswillberry.org.uk 21…