Four challenging drives, each at a different Gloucestershire estate, tested the lucky guns who won the GWCT raffle
In this, the fifth year of the High Four shoots, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) had again organised a raffle in which the prize was a day spread across four great Cotswold estates. In all, 250 tickets had been sold at £200 apiece, with everything depending on the generosity of individual landowners, each of whom contributed one major drive without charge.
So it was that the Iliffe team assembled at Church Farm, near the village of Yanworth, on the 6,000-acre Stowell Park Estate on a beautiful, cold, November morning. Lord Vestey, the owner and donor, could not be present but after coffee in the barn, with a fire blazing, the riot act was read by head keeper Eddie Graves, a massive figure made more impressive by the fact that he is the holder of an MBE for services to game keeping and that this was his 25th season at Stowell.
OFF TO 40 ACRE
With minimum fuss the team moved off in a convoy of 4x4s to deploy in a valley deep beneath a stand of maize, known as 40 Acre. Frost crunched on the grass as the guns moved into position and the beeches on the hill behind were glowing with the most glorious reds and browns and golds that anyone could remember.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2017-Ausgabe von The Field.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2017-Ausgabe von The Field.
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Rory Stewart - The former Cabinet minister and hit podcast host talks to Alec Marsh about the parlous state of British politics, land management and his deep love of the countryside
The gently spoken 51-year-old former Conservative Cabinet minister is a countryman at heart. That's clear: he even changes into a tweed waistcoat for the interview, which takes place at his London home and begins with a question about his precise career status. Having resigned from the Commons and the Conservative Party in 2019, the former diplomat and soldier has reinvented himself, first with an unconventional but promising run as an independent for the London mayoralty (abandoned because of COVID19 in 2020) and then as a media figure, co-hosting one of the country's most popular podcasts, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor.
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