The Field

I’VE decided to make it my mission to speak up for ordinary rural folk who depend on the countryside for their livelihoods and way of life. As we approach Christmas, country people will be out tending the rivers, hedges, woods and pathways that visit

Conservation bodies are stepping up efforts to muster public support in a bid to save wild Atlantic salmon. Too little has been done to stem the fish’s decline, according to Nick Measham of Salmon & Trout Conservation (S&TC). “It’s a keystone species

Appreciation for chef Philippa Davis’s pocket-sized pheasant pies with blackberry jam was widespread across The Field’s social media channels. “We’re hungry already and it’s only 9am,” one Fielder posted on Instagram. “Looks lush,” said another on Fa

Keep a close eye on your gundogs. Theft of workers saw a significant increase in 2020 and 2021 looks set to be no different. “Our initial claim indications back up what we are hearing anecdotally, with a year-on-year rise in claims and the value of b

Tom Orde-Powlett is spearheading a range of conservation projects on his family’s 12,500-acre estate at Bolton Castle in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, home to a grouse moor run by his father, Lord Bolton, and one of the UK’s last remaining population

Write to: The Editor, The Field, Pinehurst II, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF. Email: [email protected] LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY OR SPACE I picked up my copy of The Field from my local

I ALWAYS assumed ‘rural-based logistics’ was about how to get a lift down to the village pub; would the local farmer be passing with his tractor come opening time? Rural-based logistics, however, is a real commercial thing, rising in value and demand

NDC No sooner has the sediment been reached at the bottom of the Christmas port than Janus turns his brace of faces and another year is upon us and we must look resolutely forward. I prefer to follow his retrospective gaze, through ruby-tinted specta

MY 100-year-old great aunt lives in a care home. She is a brilliantly warm and quick-witted character but towards the end of last year, my great uncle, her younger brother, called my brother, who lives nearby, with great concern as she was apparently

Statelier than a spaniel, more reliable than a terrier, the labrador retriever proffers steadiness and calm to see the day through. Skill and spirit displayed on the last drive is equal to that on the first. Pace is kept with runners, birds deemed lo

Appearances can be deceptive – and no more so than in the case of the Angmering Park Shoot in West Sussex, which is set over 6,000 acres of land in the South Downs. Having driven from Arundel, where the castle sits sentinel high above the surrounding

Enjoy these great subscriber benefits: • Relax with the convenience of home delivery• Save 40% and never miss an issue• The best of fieldsports from home and abroad delivered straight to your door• Join the 91,000** people who love and read The Field

There are many guns who, like me, still love side-by-sides; indeed, the sporting gun juxtaposée is enjoying something of a renaissance. I am biased, I have used one all my life, beginning both game and clay shooting with a side-by-side. These days, I

It is 2 September 2020 and Gavin Gardiner’s sale of Fine Modern & Vintage Sporting Guns. A toxic combination of COVID-19 and La Sturgeon has killed off his annual jaunt to Gleneagles Hotel and we’re ‘online only’. I’m in my study, Freya the dog gonki

FROM hand throwers that will provide an afternoon’s entertainment to the best trap for hosting a simulated game day at home, take your pick from these Field favourites. Also, follow our advice on the best environmentally friendly clays to use, and a

Spare a thought for your shoot host. The wind is gusting in an unhelpful direction for the first drive, happy hikers are merrily instagramming in the game cover and one of the guns has left his boots at home. The fine detail of lunchtime refreshment

I was tying up a row of fey little mayfly patterns, with which I hoped to charm the trout of Montana’s fabled spring creeks, when I got an email from my pal Henry Hughes in Oregon entitled ‘The Intruder’. “These have been very effective on our fall,

It’s a given that every contemporary huntsman wishes he or she had been plying their trade in an easier era several decades earlier. And yet, when the time finally comes to surrender the horn there is a realisation that things were not quite so bad a

How are you decorating your cave these days? My study features a buffalo skull; an oil painting of a horse; a Snaffles print; a plaque mount of a large Spey salmon; antlers; and some hunting scenes. Twenty-thousand to 30,000 years ago, distant relati

While friends chat about loft conversions and basement extensions, my Catholic mind wanders to my long-harboured fantasy of having a house with its own chapel. There’s something both indulgent and romantic about the idea of a private place of worship

Of all the symbols of the 12 days of Christmas – the holly, ivy and mistletoe; the wreaths, tree and decorations; the turkey and plum pudding – none is so synonymous with the spirit of goodwill, peace and joy, or more ancient, than the sound of churc

Full Cry by Peter Biegel WHEN most hunts finished their season, hunting folk gravitated to Exmoor to hunt a ‘May fox’. Peter Biegel captures Captain Ronnie Wallace in Full Cry in 1975, when he took the Heythrop hounds from the Cotswolds down to Exmoo

Q This will be the third time I have asked for your help. You answered my queries perfectly on the two previous occasions and I am hoping you will be able to again. It’s cocktail time, and usually we have a houseful. The cocktails you recommended las

ONCE, at a local auction, my eyes lit on a handsome, gilt, cabriole (three-legged) ‘hall’ table – not my usual thing but it would have looked great in our house (cue vigorous approval from my significant other). I had watched it fail to raise an open

HOW often have you texted a racing friend to say: “I’m in the Royal Enclosure… where are you?” But did you realise that the reason she’s a no-show is because she is actually a mermaid? In the comicbook world of Dee Taylor’s horse-racing pop art, this

You will find Weldon’s bespoke and sustainably-produced floors in royal palaces and on super yachts. However, these beautiful, ‘antique oak’ parquet tiles are a ‘ready to wear’ (or walk on) option. Easy to install, they would transform any room, addi

THIS 32in, 20-bore Guerini Forum is imported by Anglo Italian Arms (who also bring Fabarm guns into the UK). I requested the gun because I have been conducting a series of experiments on the shooting qualities of 30in and 32in 20-bores. I am interest

SOME years ago I visited the kennel of a leading field-trial competitor. What was conspicuous was the lack of any retired dogs, so I asked what happened to them. I was told that dogs that were no longer competitive or not required for stud were rehom

GENETICS have been a major contributing factor in my sporting life, which revolves primarily around hunting. I begged and pleaded every day for nearly five years for a pony and my mother bought me My Lady the Dun Pony for my seventh birthday. The hun

UNLIKE the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, who considered them a luxury food capable of curing hangovers, aiding digestion and healing wounds, the cabbage today has a far humbler reputation. However, I hope to reinstate at least some of its for

SUBARU’S XV has always seemed to suffer from an identity crisis. Is it an SUV? A ‘crossover’? For most of its life it has been a five-door hatchback with raised suspension and four-wheel drive, occupying the clear blue water between the bigger Subaru