The freedom of the city

The success of the Manchester Syndicate’s urban shoot shows what can be achieved in the most unlikely of places

- JACK BELL

The Manchester Syndicate, as the name suggests, is by no means set in an English idyll. The rolling countryside of the latter is here swapped for the metropolitan skyline of central Manchester and the built-up expanse of Rochdale. The shoot’s setting can best be described as unique, made up of the few remaining blocks of green space that are surrounded by the endless housing developments, A roads, motorways and industrial parks of Greater Manchester.

The syndicate is now in its seventh season, having come to fruition after the founding members — who had been Guns on various shoots, mostly in and around south Cumbria — decided that the logistics of managing a place nearly two hours away had become too difficult and it was time to find a suitable venue closer to home.

Blank canvas

The members approached a local dairy farmer who agreed to let them use his ground. The syndicate’s permission grew and soon they were allowed to shoot on a handful of other farms in the immediate area.

This was truly a blank canvas with no pre-existing woods nor cover for drives. However, small areas of less agriculturally productive land, such as wet patches on field edges and steep banks, were sitting idle and permission was granted to transform these underused areas into well-positioned drives and habitats for a variety of game species and wildlife.

The ball was now well and truly rolling. Without any external financial assistance, the team of willing volunteers began to plant thousands of trees, dig ponds, drill game covers as well as restoring long-neglected hedgerows, all in the hope of creating a shoot in a densely populated urban area — by no means an easy feat.