November 2022

The Field

Champion of Britain's countryside heritage

The Field1 min read
The Field
Editor Alexandra Henton Deputy editor Ed Wills Features editor Madeleine Silver Production editor Sarah Potts Head of design Dean Usher Art editor Steve Mumby Picture editors Max Tremlett and Karen Whitehead Group production editor Maxine Clarke Chie
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The Field
When The Field covered the coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, there was jubilation and a special issue, which still sits in my office, a gift from someone who had been clearing out their papers and realised that some bits of history are bes
The Field4 min read
Resist The New Orthodoxy
WHEN one thinks of a local councillor, it is easy to conjure up the image of a busybody, readily attending endless meetings about potholes, litter and public lavatories. It would be easy to give their activity little notice, particularly when the eve
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The Day Our Voice Was Heard
Parliamentarians gathered in the House of Commons on 6 September to mark the 20th anniversary of the Liberty & Livelihood March. Representatives from all parties came together to show their support for the rural way of life while reflecting on the ma
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Scots Capercaillie Could Be Extinct Within 30 Years
The world’s largest grouse species could be lost from Scotland’s forests unless urgent action is taken to improve chick survival rates, the GWCT has warned. The capercaillie is confined to the Scottish Highlands in the UK. Sharp declines are occurrin
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One Good Deed…
Le Chameau has raised more than £16,500 for The Prince’s Countryside Fund (TPCF) thanks to its Imperfects initiative of donating 10% of any boot sale. Over the past decade, TPCF has invested over £10.5 million in more than 530 projects across the UK
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Field Champions
Simon Alden, president, Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) What does your role entail? I chair the CAAV council and sit on the executive committee, leading our membership in their services to farmers and landowners. Working with our s
The Field1 min readInternet & Web
Social Spotlight
The Field readers on Instagram were posed the question: ‘Which type of shooting do you find the hardest? Walked-up or driven?’ The answers were varied; the majority found rough shooting the most difficult, with the varying types of shots that are pre
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News In Brief
War Horse author Sir Michael Morpurgo has thrown his weight behind the last-ditch campaign to save a historic military stable block from demolition. The stable block is the last surviving link between horses and the Shorncliffe Garrison in Folkestone
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November Diary
Petworth Festival Literary Week Petworth, West Sussex Tel: 01798 343055 petworthfestival.org.uk 4 Ladies’ Introduction to Duck Flighting Cubley Shoot, Ashbourne, Derbyshire Tel: 01283 810910 basc.org.uk 6 The RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran C
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The Field’s Almanac
Flower: Chrysanthemum Beaver Moon: 8 November Harvest: Leeks, parsnips, brussel sprouts November’s name comes from the Latin word novem, meaning ‘nine’. November was originally the ninth month of the early Roman calendar. 1 November: hunting season o
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The FIFA World Cup
THE World Cup is not the place for ‘Cupsets’. Brazil have won the tournament five times, Germany and Italy four, France, Argentina and Uruguay twice, and England and Spain once. Those teams are the flag-bearers of international football. There are no
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Council Rejects Hunt Ban
An attempt to ban trail hunting on land owned by Cornwall Council has failed following a successful campaign by local hunts and the Countryside Alliance. It comes following the long-awaited publication of a formal response from the leader of the coun
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Kit To Covert
EMAIL [email protected] High dexterity with thermal regulation, moisture control and 100% waterproof fabric. Kit to make you rightly smug as the weather turns. ♦ Price £60 ♦ Tel 01553 348009 ♦ sealskinz.com A blend of wool, polyester and
The Field7 min read
Letters
Write to: The Editor, The Field, Future Publishing PLC, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London, W2 6JR Email: [email protected] LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY OR SPACE The Sporting Chance ‘Size isn’t everything’ cartoon [October issue] bro
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A Royal Anomaly
AS the second Elizabethan age ends and we look back at 70 glorious years, there is an anomaly; a pause in the footprints of history and achievement during the remarkable reign of HM The Queen – and that is architecture. There have been some striking
The Field1 min readArchitecture
Country Estate Of The Month
Adlington Hall is a Grade I-listed house with a rich architectural history. It has a distinctive Tudor façade to the east and an imposing Georgian front to the south. The estate includes six farms, 22 houses and cottages, and extends to 1,922 acres –
The Field2 min read
Six Of The Best: Dorset & Hampshire
EAST CHALDON, WAREHAM, DORSET This property is up a farm road with a bridleway from the house that leads through the valley down to the Jurassic Coast at Durdle Door. Limekiln House, originally part of the Weld estate and extended over the years, has
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Treat Yourself To 6 Issues For £23.50*
Scan the QR code below with your phone to subscribe Two easy ways to subscribe: ONLINE THEFIELDSUBS.CO.UK/X857 TELEPHONE 0330 333 1113 QUOTE CODE: X857 Lines open Monday to Friday, 8.30am-7pm, and Saturday, 10am-3pm (UK time) Offer closes 31 January
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Don’t Get Caught Short
NDC One of the things I love most about this glorious magazine is the fact that its timelessness affords it an afterlife which other, lesser publications can only aspire to. Once the family has enjoyed it and it has spent a month or so on the coffee
The Field7 min read
Find Your Limit
How to shoot high birds, and how to estimate their range and the required forward allowance, is a topic of perennial interest to shooting sportsmen. Reaching out at range with a shotgun is a fascinating business. Let’s start with the 10 basic tenets
The Field6 min read
Ending A Stalk With A Chinese Takeaway
Norfolk reeds wave in the cold winter wind. Dykes dissect grazing marshes, each filled with water. Splashes, half-frozen, are dotted like silver jewels among the green grass. Teal and snipe cluster around the edges, making the most of the afternoon f
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Lordenshaws Estate Northumberland
At this stage of the season, the birds were flying hard, powering off the top of the bank and weaving and twisting over the Guns towards the woodland behind The Lordenshaws Estate, on the eastern edge of the Northumberland National Park, famous for i
The Field8 min read
From The Turf To The Chase
THE only ‘selfie with a celeb’ I have ever taken wasn’t on my own behalf. It was for my horse. One hunting day, the field was due to change horses at the yard at which I kept her, and for a few hours, the stable next to her was occupied by Denman. I
The Field7 min read
How To Hook Your Place
As one Scottish fishing season ends, both fishers and estates immediately think of the next. Flies are tied, dreams are dreamt and the process of booking and securing weeks begins. From the fisher’s perspective, it can be a challenging task to choose
The Field7 min read
Mud And Thunder
“I stopped counting at 30,” said a grinning Zoe Ireland, wiping mud from her face. She wasn’t talking about birthdays but hedges, and was close to having to shout over the din in the Tap & Run. The pub, nestled in the village of Upper Broughton, near
The Field6 min read
A Match Made In Heaven
Is your freezer already filling with the fruits of another memorable sporting foray? At least these days there’s no excuse to feel trapped in a culinary rut. The Countryside Alliance’s Game to Eat campaign and, of course, The Field’s own recipe pages
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Venison And Wine: A Quick Guide
A show-stopping venison haunch or saddle calls for a suitably aristocratic partner. This is the moment to decant your mature red Burgundy, fine claret or Brunello di Montalcino. Comforting, deep flavours for a winter’s night call for a Douro or Langu
The Field1 min readFinance & Money Management
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Cold Comfort
I can’t exactly claim to have been brought up in a cold house. I realise that this is a distinctly non-U admission, so I need to clarify things a little. I grew up in London with parents whose differing views about what to do with a thermostat were s
The Field7 min read
Taking Up Residence
If you were in the crowd for Trooping the Colour in June, you might have spotted a man wearing a bowler hat. That man was most likely the artist Freddy Paske, soaking up the scene, pencil in hand. Paske, a former captain in the Light Dragoons, was th
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A Cold Start
▸ Prep schools in particular are so often housed in former stately homes. Blogger and former editor Ralph Hancock recalls his miserable years in the 1950s at The Old Malthouse School in Dorset, where “the water in the tin bowls on the washstands in t
The Field3 min read
Cold-house Essentials
It’s at night, when temperatures drop even further, that the denizens of cold houses are most tested. One can fend off the cold during the day fairly easily, with an extra jumper or a few star jumps. But at night, the cold penetrates in a different w
The Field8 min read
The Open Flank Of Desert Wilderness
On the night of 16 November 1941, 65 paratroopers exited their aircraft over the Libyan Desert with a mission to raid enemy airfields in support of the Eighth Army’s imminent offensive – Operation Crusader. Ever-sceptical army banter refers to this a
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Country Estate
WILD TURKEY MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO Bilderatlas, 1860-64, Uncredited Native to North America, the wild turkey is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. They are the same species as the domesticated turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), yet in the wild these bir
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Country Queries
Q I have started to collect field mushrooms, but we can’t eat them all. How do I preserve them? SW, by email A Mushrooms can be frozen or dried. Drying is one of the oldest methods. Slice the mushrooms and thread them on to fishing wire, leaving a li
The Field6 min read
The Price Of Boredom
EVEN A Sorcerer’s constantly learning Auction Apprentice occasionally feels the urge to break free and try to land a cunning buy without the prior blessing of his usually consulted, and always heeded, Master. Much, I suppose, as a child longs to outg
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The Boot Room
The classic spinning hostess aid has been given a fresh treatment by designer Vanessa Konig. Available in a wide range of colours and, in collaboration with Kate Elwell of Master the Art, a series of stunning malachite, tortoiseshell and lapis lazuli
The Field2 min read
The Purse Pistol
DURING the 19th century, gunmakers experimented with many different gun designs. Some of these were designed to be carried as disguised weapons, not an unknown practice in the Victorian era, when self-defence was taken seriously. This example stands
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Art In The Field
IT IS three-quarters of a century since Alfred Munnings called for artists to paint a sky that looked like a sky, yet life still remains difficult for equestrian painters who want to make figurative work. Admiring the seeming ease of Charles Church’s
The Field3 min read
The Double Red Duke
YOU won’t miss it: rows of candy-stripe umbrellas standing as a welcoming party on the junction where this former wool merchant’s manor sits in the Oxfordshire village of Clanfield. This might not be strictly storybook-worthy Cotswold territory – the
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Beretta 694 Sport 31
THIS month’s test focuses on a Beretta 694 Sport 31 – distinguished by its uncommon 31in barrels – imported and distributed by GMK of Fareham. It is designed as a superior clay-breaking machine and is a good weight for that purpose at 8lb 7oz. It cou
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The Pick Of The Bunch
I HAVE a friend who keeps a meticulous record of all the birds his dogs – three labradors and a springer – pick up each season. (He keeps a clicker in his pocket to record the daily tally.) He works on two commercial shoots and generally picks up fiv
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Georgie Stanford
MY shooting career started not with a gun, but with a beating stick. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of a family shoot in Hampshire; the day was run by my great uncle Bill and you could always tell where he was, especially behind a hedge, w
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Six Of The Best Lebanese Wines
2020 LEBANESE ASSYRTICO (£9.90, Aldi) A very tasty example of this increasingly popular grape, seasoned with dashes of Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. 2019 CH KSARA RÉSERVE DU COUVENT (£10.95, Wine Society) A brilliant entry-level red from Lebanon’s ol
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Broadening Horizons
WINE is made in a lot of unlikely places, or seemingly unlikely. Good wine, too. Only the other night I had a jolly tasty Pinot Gris from Holland and a textbook Malbec from Peru. One of my favourite sub-£20 traditional-method sparklers comes from Lux
The Field4 min readRegional & Ethnic
Game For Lunch
AS far as the Guns are concerned, the perfect shoot lunch should be delicious, hearty and speedily served precisely at any time between late morning and 4pm – all achievable with some careful menu planning. Pies are a good choice; they are the ultima
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Polaris Ranger XP 1000
IT has become a post-harvest ritual: a long drive round the boundary of the farm, as an act of ‘closure’. We joke that it’s a last-minute check for bits of crop that have escaped the combine, but many years ago there was a two-acre corner that was fo
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A Life Story And Other Glories
AN Wilson is nothing short of a genius, a searing journalist, a prolific biographer, a historian and a novelist. Now he has turned his talents upon himself in an autobiography of his early life. The result? Devastating honesty about his brutal and sa
The Field4 min readRegional & Ethnic
The Field from The Archives
I have heard many men say they never want to see a pheasant again after shooting it, and this probably is due to eating roast pheasant early in October before it is properly hung and when even the youngest bird is very tasteless. Pheasants are undoub

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