Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i The Field

Hugh van Cutsem Hugh van Cutsem lives in the Cotswolds with his family but his childhood was spent in Norfolk with a pack of brothers. ‘Health and safety’ was not a big feature in their lives. His father gave him an early love and understanding of the Brecklands and the importance of sustainable farming practices. His real passion lies with deer; van Cutsem is chairman of the British Deer Society and believes there has never been a more important time to have an organisation advocating for the humane and sensitive management of the UK’s deer population while also beating the drum for wild venison. What does November hold? “I will be out in all weather trying to get an early start on the fallow deer cull while ensuring my trainee…

Wide-ranging Cabinet reshuffles following high-profile Government resignations have seen a change in the guard at Defra with a new Secretary of State and Food Security and Rural Affairs Minister. Emma Reynolds MP is the new Secretary of State, while long-serving MP Dame Angela Eagle is Minister of State. In a post on social media platform ‘X’ Reynolds, whose Wycombe constituency has a large rural component, said she was looking forward to building on the work of her predecessor Steve Reed MP ‘cleaning up our rivers, backing British farming and ensuring nature’s recovery’. In response to her appointment, Mo Metcalf-Fisher, director of external affairs at the Countryside Alliance, said: “We congratulate Emma Reynolds. It is clear the Government must urgently reset its relationship with the countryside and establish the bond of…

THE DUKE OF Beaufort’s is considered by many to be the crème de la crème of English foxhound packs. Its country is the stuff of hunters’ dreams: manicured turf, impeccable hedges and vast estates with architectural confections serving up picture-perfect backdrops for sophisticated Meets. Then there are the immaculately attired riders in their elegant blue coats with buff facings, and the Masters could make up a Who’s Who to rival any society publication. So an invitation from Alex and Suzie Rose to join their posse for a November day offering thrills and spills, sport and black-tie glamour made for an irresistible proposition. Suzie Rose (née Dowty) and I met many moons ago during a weekend of high jinks with the Galway Blazers. Flash forward 10 years and her excellent choice…

Quilted buttoned gilet Campbell’s of Beauly, £395 Lightly padded and made in the UK from British tweed or tartan. A sure-fire hit for wrapping up. campbellsofbeauly.com NL Pure 8x32 binoculars Swarovski Optik, £2,070 Ergonomic and lightweight; ideal for travel and fitting in Christmas stockings. swarovskioptik.com Shooting jigsaw Tim Bulmer, £19.99 Get your eye in with this 1,000-piece puzzle, taking a light-hearted look at shooting life. alljigsawpuzzles.co.uk Men’s manicure set Aspinal of London, £95 A compact, full-grain leather set that can be personalised for grooming on the go. aspinaloflondon.com Ripon red retriever tie Alan Paine, £44.95 Pure silk, presented in a smart gift box. Also in navy and yellow. alanpaine.co.uk Gundogs and flying pheasant bracelet Ken Hunt, £350 Sterling-silver bracelet inspired by traditional English gun engraving. kenhunt.co.uk Noble gun cleaning mat…

I READ an article and heard a story that is now playing I havoc with the enjoyment of my regular Sunday evening ‘fix’: the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. Apparently, legions of HMRC’s finest continue to work from home. That story? A chum tells me that growing numbers of ‘large’ taxpayers are incensed at how this Government is squandering their hard-won earnings. Further, gambling that some of HMRC’s at-home warriors might have as much of an eye on daytime television and TikTok cat videos as their daily pile of tax returns, an increasing number are taking a punt and underpaying or not paying their taxes. Possible? An American friend once told me that, post-Watergate, wealthy Americans were so angry about Nixon arguing he’d done no wrong that they stopped paying their taxes,…

RECENTLY I’ve been re-reading much of the fiction of John Buchan – that great friend to The Field – prompted by the marking of the 150th anniversary of his birth in August. He wasn’t, frankly, a great gardener (unlike his wife) but plants do get a mention here and there, and I was particularly struck by the prevalence of the grosart in the gardens of the humbler of his Scottish characters. As all Scots will know, grosart is a dialect word meaning ‘gooseberry’. I’m not at all surprised. The humblest and least regarded of the hardy soft fruits requires so little care – or at least it did before the accidental introduction of American gooseberry mildew in 1905 – that it has been a common denizen of cottage gardens everywhere…

FAILING to connect with feathered quarry when you have the tools to do so can be a deflating experience. Punching pairs of holes in the sky under the maniacal smirking of your closest friends may lead you to question not only your technique and equipment but your choice of sport, group of associates and even your own moral fibre. However, when you are able to stop the rot and ‘cut a curling little Gabriel from the clouds’ or watch one of your dearest pals miss a howler, morale can be rapidly restored. The conditions are always a useful scapegoat on which to blame performance when the birds simply aren’t falling. In the winter of 1940, weeks after victory in the Battle of Britain, Field contributor Scolopax remembers a day when…

AT THE LAST G7 Summit our Government signed a protocol. This document dealt with the scourge of wildfire, and committed us to prevent and mitigate their risk and severity. The protocol specifically referenced prescribed burning as avital weapon in that battle. Those who own and manage our moorlands said “Amen to that”. Now, with the ink still wet, the Government has banned what it agreed was essential just a few months ago. Defra has said that cool rotational burning will be banned on 1.6 million acres above the moorland line. The fears of the moorland community that the inevitable, annual increase in vegetation will lead to more wildfires of ever greater severity is discounted by the Minister because if you rewet, remove the sheep and stop cool rotational burning, the…

A clay shoot organised by the Forest of Bowland Moorland Group has raised just under £20,000 for Prostate Cancer UK. The event, which was held at Abbeystead estate in Lancashire, was attended by 25 teams of four with groups being made up of locals and visitors who had travelled from far and wide in support. Natalie Herd, coordinator for the Forest of Bowland Moorland Group, explained her reasons for wanting to organise a clay shoot for this particular charity: “In the past 20 years or so, the number of men that I have met through shoot days and where we live in the farming community that have had prostate cancer is significant. “They are people who come beating, flanking, pickers-up and shoot-day drivers, young and old,” she said. “They take…

A summit hosted by BASC has brought together key organisations to discuss how best to protect but also breathe new life into game and wildlife qualifications. “We are pleased to host the first in-person meeting of the City & Guilds Employer Industry Board,” said Curtis Mossop, head of education at BASC, which has been lobbying for the continuation of further education game and wildlife courses for more than two years. Mossop continued: “Only two years ago, the future of these courses looked bleak, with funding set to vanish and no clear alternatives in place. Through sustained lobbying and collaboration, we’ve turned that situation around. The sector now has a genuine opportunity to shape a modern curriculum that reflects its needs.” Matt Ridout, a tutor and lecturer at Sparsholt College, believes…

BAGOTS PARK is a ring-fenced, diverse farming, sporting and residential estate in the heart of Staffordshire. It is made up of an eight-bedroom, Gothic-style former hunting lodge together with further residential properties. The estate, approached down a long private drive, is 1,789 acres in total, comprising productive farmland as well as woodland (a mix of in-hand and acres leased). With its combination of woods, copses, banks and water, Bagots Park runs a successful commercial pheasant and partridge shoot, which includes accommodation for guests. There is also a large let forest. One of the estate properties has planning permission to create a new and larger detached house to take advantage of the views, while the hunting lodge is currently used as a high-end holiday and shooting let. Agent: Savills ♦ Tel:…

SINCE THEIR creation, shotguns have undergone technological development driven by several desires, one of which was to increase their effective range. In smoothbore guns makers sought any possible advantage against the laws of physics. Their solutions generally took one of two approaches. The first was some form of ‘concentrator’: wire mesh wrapped in paper or cardboard tubes that kept the shot together for a distance after exiting the barrel. The wire-mesh versions were the first ‘cartridges’ sold by the silversmiths-turned-cartridge manufacturers William and Charles Eley in the late 1820s. However, attempts to increase the range even further ran into technical difficulties, which severely damaged their reputation. It was only through the support of the first James Purdey, who placed his good name behind their improved designs, that Eley Brothers survived…

OXFORDSHIRE lady seeks clever, handsome partner, eager to learn new things, share adventures and find our moment in the spotlight. Happy to pay. Will train.’ Such a wanted ad – if it actually existed – might raise eyebrows but for Gill Raddings it sums up her nearconstant hunt for new canine partners who want to work in the movies. Raddings is the owner and founder of Stunt Dogs based near Chipping Norton, one of the best-respected animal acting agencies in the business. Besides having seven or eight dogs of her own who live in what she calls local ‘foster homes’, which are fully financed by her, Raddings has a larger company of local dogs, owned by others, that she trains and works with on set, with a daily fee paid…

RECEIVED wisdom says we must travel way north to see the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. The ‘auroral oval’, in which sightings are most common, typically includes Iceland, the northern parts of Scandinavia, Russia and Canada at latitudes between 60 and 75 degrees. Why there? Solar flares and ‘coronal mass ejections’, emanating from the Sun, collide with the Earth’s magnetic field as charged particles, accelerating down magnetic lines to the North Pole and creating the visual magic witnessed at those upper latitudes. Yet sightings of the Northern Lights (or ‘lights’) are increasingly common further south, notably in Britain – and not just on social media as enhanced by clever camera filters. Solar activity follows an 11-year cycle and, with the current solar cycle peaking now, the auroral oval has temporarily…

DURING the 18th century theft, burglary and robbery flourished. Contemporary accounts speak of the dangers of both urban and rural life but particularly of those posed for the traveller. Travellers and property owners naturally resented any loss of their wealth. As we heard in the October issue, prior to the formal establishment of official and professional police forces individuals were largely responsible for securing their own personal protection and, as there was little if any state-supplied policing, they would consequently take measures to protect both their property and the lives of themselves and their loved ones. There were few restrictions on the ownership of weapons; most if not all homes – rich or poor, tradesman or royalty, especially in the countryside – possessed various firearms. One of the most popular…

THIS MONTH we are testing two new BR221 guns from Rizzini imported by Anglo Spanish Imports (ASI) of Snape: one is a 28-bore, the other a .410. These guns are light; the 28-bore weighs just 5lb 4oz and the .410 5lb 7oz (a little heavier than the 28-bore because of thicker chamber walls in the monobloc barrels). Launched at The Game Fair this year, the Brescian guns under our microscope both have 30in ventilated-rib barrels, single selective triggers and semi-pistol-grip stocks (other options are available). “It is interesting to note that the .410 is heavier than the 28-bore. In fact, this is to be expected, as the action is common for both bores and there is consequently more meat in the monobloc of the .410. Most people tend to assume…

SPORTING SUSTENANCE A day hedge-hopping with the Ledbury might be the hottest ticket in Herefordshire but add some gastronomic flair with an off-the-beaten-track ‘food safari’ in the county, devised by Visit Herefordshire with the help of wild food chef Tait Miller. Download the itineraries as PDFs, mapping out a weekend of rosé cuvée from Wythall Estate, Rowlestone Farmhouse’s ‘field to freezer’ ice cream, home-reared Belted Galloway steak at The Bull’s Head in the Black Mountains and hunks of Blue Monk cheese from the Monkland Cheese Dairy just outside Leominster. Visit: visitherefordshire.co.uk THE FIELD’S BLACK BOOK After braving the wind whistling off Cleeve Hill at Cheltenham Racecourse’s Countryside Day (14 November), a table at The Tivoli in town beckons. Local game dealers, butchers and fishmongers take top billing on publicans Tom…

A social media post by Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Susan Dungworth has been criticised for suggesting that legally held firearms are used in domestic abuse cases in rural areas. The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) lodged a formal challenge to the comments, which were made on Facebook as part of Rural Crime Action Week. Commissioner Dungworth’s post read: ‘Isolation can be a weapon in domestic abuse. In rural Northumberland, abusers often use remoteness, legally held firearms and surveillance to control victims.’ “The NGO does not, under any circumstances, condone domestic abuse. Perpetrators must always be held to account. However, to imply that legally held firearms are inherently linked to domestic abuse is both misleading and damaging,” said Livia Brynin, firearms adviser for the organisation. “It unfairly stigmatises responsible, law-abiding…

Black grouse translocated to the North York Moors in a bid to expand the range of one of the UK’s rarest birds have successfully bred and fledged a total of 12 chicks in their first breeding season. It is very likely the first time in nearly 200 years that black grouse have bred in the area. Twenty birds (10 males and 10 females) were moved 40 miles from their North Pennine stronghold last autumn [Giving black grouse a lift, April issue]. They were caught by GWCT researchers at night-time roosts and transported to the release site. Eight males and eight females were fitted with tags and then monitored. The seven males still present in the spring established leks. The seven females still around in spring nested, with five nests hatching…

THERE is something of a magical aura about Arden Hall, which occupies a secluded position on a narrow valley floor surrounded by towering woodland on the edge of the North York Moors. If you were to imagine Hansel and Gretel’s fairy-tale house in the forest, but without the cake and candy, this would be it – and in keeping with the Grimm Brothers’ macabre storyline Mary, Queen of Scots stayed in these isolated surroundings en route south to her execution in 1587. The property, which has been the seat of the Earls of Mexborough since 1897, is currently home to James Savile and his family, and lies to the west of Hawnby village at the heart of a 15,000-acre estate comprising moorland, pasture and woodland. For many years shooting at…

Sporting artist Under the hammer Royal Armouries Sporting dog The boot room Gun review Country queries Gardening Fieldtofork Cookery Wine Travel Books Field testers The Last Hurrah THE CLIMB on to your peg has already been a bit of an adventure, picking your way up along the banks of a narrow mountain stream, gun slip catching awkwardly against peat hags and cartridge bag thumping your thigh. As you arrive and set up, the flushing point is still high above you. You are looking at a huge canvas of grey sky, little clumps of windblown cotton grass in the foreground. Then black silhouettes begin to appear over the horizon. The drive has begun. It is almost impossible to capture the feeling at the start of a great drive. Even The Field’s…

IF YOU live with a dog you become attuned, even unwittingly, to its mood swings. The tiniest changes in its behaviour can alert you to something wrong. This was the case a couple of weeks ago when I sensed that there was something amiss with my seven-year-old spaniel, Emma, though I couldn’t say what. I had to leave early the next morning, so my wife took Emma for her pre-breakfast walk. Whatever was wrong the night before had got worse: Emma didn’t want to walk or eat her morning chicken wing. My wife arranged an appointment with the vet for later the same day (if only you could book an NHS doctor so easily). A veterinary nurse quickly identified the problem: Emma had an abscess on a broken rear molar.…

THERE WAS a time when I would frequent Woodstock, beetling out of Oxford in my first car: a Ford Fiesta. Didn’t we all want a Renault Clio – ‘Nicole?’ ‘Papa!’ – or a bottle-green Golf but end up with second-hand, multicoloured Fiestas? This one lived a peripatetic life amid the dreaming spires, moved from pillar to post to avoid traffic wardens until a particularly decent party would lead to absent-mindedness and I’d forsake it for a week or so, only to have to retrieve it from the car pound in north Oxford. Nevertheless, it served well for the odd day out with the Christ Church & Farley Hill Beagles, getting us to the Falkland Arms in Great Tew for tins of white snuff or to Woodstock to hunker down in…

Across 1 Passes between mountain peaks appreciated by equestrians? (7) 5 Where game carcasses may be hung to keep fresh (6) 8 Horse with coat of pigmented and white hairs that do not lighten with age (4) 9 Pâté de tête: a jellied dish of pig’s head and trotters (5) 10 A Devon salmon/trout river… dash! (4) 11 Windhover is another name for this small falcon (7) 12 Fish-eating raptor also called ‘sea hawk’ (6) 14 The ‘English Riviera’ (6) 16 Pack horse’s basket (7) 18 Control of this fern is beneficial to e.g. grouse (7) 21 Works to make some dough? (6) 22 See 26 across 24 Pigeon or shotgun hammer (7) 26 (And 22 across) Target used in e.g. skeet shooting (4,6) 28 Cattle ___, rarest of UK’s three white herons (5) 29 Brassy-scaled, torpedo-shaped coarse fish…