Shooting, conservation and the Purdey Awards

By Mike Swan, Senior Advisor

One of the proudest moments of my career with the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Advisory service was when my friends and clients Ian and Claire Smith of Nether Hale in Kent won the Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation in 2003. Four years earlier, with just 350 acres to play with, and a tight squeeze in the market for their main crop, the humble cauliflower, they had decided stop growing them, farm in a more diverse and conservation-friendly way, and do whatever they could to rescue a grey partridge population on the brink.

 
Guns socialising between drives at the 2003 winning shoot, Nether Hale.

The results were spectacular, with the pair count going from three in spring 2000, to 25 and rising by 2003. There were parallel increases in many other farmland birds, and hare populations went up by leaps and bounds too. The extra farm habitat, in the form of things like beetle banks and winter bird seed mixes, was also key to an ever more successful small family shoot, providing a great environment for their released redlegs.

Speaking to Ian recently, I asked him what winning the Purdey Awards meant. His reply was: “At the time it was an enormous morale boost after a very tough time, and the certificate is still on display in pride of place in the dining room. It also gave us confidence in our conservation efforts that still continues today. With ever-growing pressure from protected predators, the greys have gone full circle, but we still have lots of farmland birds like corn buntings and tree sparrows. The pollinators are a joy too, from bumblebees to small blue butterflies that recolonised after we planted kidney vetch for them.”

This story of enhanced confidence is one that I meet on a regular basis when speaking to other Purdey entrants around the country. Time and again I hear words along the lines: “We really benefitted from the knowledge of the judges who visited us.” There is also another thread running through the Awards: success breeds success. They are there to celebrate the link between game shooting and conservation, and to reward those who have done it well. Time and again entrants give knowing about previous successful shoots as a motivation for both their project, and for entering themselves.

Restoration of wild grey partridge populations has been a strong theme over the full 25 years that the Awards have been running, and the 2024 winners are no exception. In his entry for Macaroni Farm in the Cotswolds, James Bendall, the shoot gamekeeper, gives as the first amongst seven reasons for his project: “To increase the number of wild grey partridges year on year to the point of having a shootable surplus.” It is also important to note that father and son team Charles and Sam Phillips, whose shoot it is, wholeheartedly embrace the same aspirations.

James himself would be the first to admit that there is a long way to go yet, and that is not helped by the fact that last summer was such a poor breeding season across the whole country. However, the groundwork in terms of farm habitat is there, and with a comprehensive predation control programme in place, lots of other species like lapwing, corn bunting and skylark are increasing. The link between shooting and conservation is further emphasised by the fact that a semi-commercial released bird shoot based mainly around driven redlegs is crucial to the overall economics of the Macaroni project.

Another theme of the Awards is that size does not matter. Small shoots are very much a part of the story and have been throughout their history. The key, whatever the size, is that there has been clear vision of the end goals, and thorough execution of what is needed to get there.

So, for example, I clearly remember from the early days the story of a passionate chap who owned just a couple of acres of what had been derelict land with a wet gravel pit, in Gloucestershire. This he had restored to a thriving and wildlife-rich pond, surrounded by wetland and wood, which offered an occasional evening flight for him and a guest. He was highly commended by the judges not just for this, but also his use of it for field excursions in his role as a school geography teacher, where he gently promoted the link between shooting and conservation to his pupils.

Continuing with the theme of the smaller shoot, Gary Morse entered his 150 acres at Trevennel on the delightful Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall in 2023. The judges were very impressed with his work transforming a very bare farm with just a few wooded gullies into a wildlife haven with overwintered stubbles, wildlife seed mixes and new mixed native woodland planting. Gary was awarded an advisory visit from the GWCT, to help him with ongoing development, and it was my privilege to deliver that.

When I spoke to him earlier today, to ask how things were, he said: “You remember that you suggested planting a hedge alongside the new northern boundary wood to provide extra shelter? Well, I am standing there right now, watching the tree planters at work.” Apparently, Gary has sourced support from the Woodland Trust to help with the cost and work of putting in the 200m mixed native hedge. Discussing the awards process, he said: “It has been a pleasure from start to finish; the entry process was straightforward, the judges were a joy to host, and retired Sandringham headkeeper David Clark’s advice about my pheasant pen was a huge help. Then there was the joy of so many people turning out for a GWCT shoot walk that I was asked to host last summer by the Cornwall members group.”

2024 Purdey Award winners

The Purdey Awards are always keen to encourage new entrants. Also, as Purdey Chief Executive Dan Jago points out: “Repeat entries are always welcome from shoots that have tried for a top award previously, although the judges would understandably expect to see evidence of significant progress and change in the intervening years.” This is exactly what has happened in the case the 2024 Bronze Award winner, Bisterne Estate. Commenting on his success, gamekeeper and conservation manager Rupert Brewer said: “Being highly commended in 2019 has opened doors for us and given legitimacy to the estate and the conservation works we are undertaking.”

Bisterne straddles the valley of the Hampshire Avon, south of Ringwood, and has a wonderful mix of habitats including wetlands, farmland, woodland and heath. It is a prime example of a site where top flight gamekeeping brings a huge benefit to a wide range of wildlife. For example, once-declining populations of breeding lapwings and redshanks have been turned around and are now very much in the ascendancy, and Bisterne hosts a record density of breeding woodcock.

25 years of the Purdey Awards have brought recognition to many shoots, vividly demonstrating the strong link between game management and conservation, but there are surely many more shining examples out there, so let’s look forward to celebrating many more in the years to come.

This piece previously appeared in The Field