The One-Bird Shoot

The best things come in small packages… Matt Limb obe joins a team running a driven shoot set on just 50 acres to find out if the saying is true.

- Matt Limb

It was a damp and dank late autumn morning, with light drizzly downpours, as I made my way to North Lincolnshire and The Wolds. They are a world of difference from the Fenlands and cabbage fields in the south of the county. Here, the steep hillsides and mature woodlands form a pattern as far as the eye can see and it is far more akin to its northern neighbour in Yorkshire, than the southern flatlands of Cambridgeshire. As I drove down the narrow lanes, the landscapes called out ‘shooting country’ as pheasants sat on the side of the road getting shelter from the wet; in its day, this would no doubt have been home to the worldfamous Lincolnshire Poacher, if he ever existed, or was he on the marshes in the south of the county?

Today, his name has been given to a fine cheese and many local pubs but is best known for the traditional folk song.

I reached my destination high in the Lincolnshire Wolds, close to the highest spot in the county. As ever, it came as no surprise that the meeting place was a small farmyard. I was soon greeted by the shoot captain, Chris Guest. “Hello, good morning, welcome to the one-bird shoot.” Not the normal greeting you would expect, but then this is not a normal shoot – it claims to be possibly the country’s smallest shoot!

The shoot, now in its fifth year, occupies just 50 acres, sitting on the edge of a village and nestled on the banks of the River Bain. The setting is stunning, and despite its size it boasts half a dozen drives and can offer a good morning’s shooting. It is normally shot three days per season, in traditional walked-up style.