When you have a pint in the Harbour Inn or visit the lifeboat museum in Southwold, take a look at the grainy old Edwardian photographs that decorate the walls. Groups of hardbitten men, all whiskers and oilskins, stare back at you. A good quarter of those, who sat for a day-tripper to snap their portrait, are members of my family — now all a long time dead.
Our familial clumsy ears are hidden by sou’westers, or stick out from under nautical caps. They are fishermen and lifeboat crew, shoemakers and carpenters. They boast eccentric nicknames and dogs of uncertain breeding skulk at their feet. They are invariably pictured in front of one of the fishermen’s huts that once cluttered the beach. Old fowling-pieces can be seen leaning against the tarred walls of these shacks, where their owners would sit mending nets and yarning.
Passion
Those men lived by the coast and earned their living from it. When the North Sea was too rough to risk in their little open boats, they shot geese and duck on the marshes or the river Blyth. No market gunners these, only pot fillers. This place has been my family’s home town for generations; my parents still live there. It is this seawater in my veins that I blame for my passion for wildfowling.
Southwold was once a town of the sea rather than a ‘seaside town’. Fishing was its lifeblood. Two world wars, changing consumer tastes, shrinking fishery exclusion zones and bureaucracy succeeded in nigh destroying the once-booming industry here. A dedicated number of hardy souls still fish the shallow everchanging waters of Sole Bay, named after the delicately flavoured flatfish that favour these muddy seas.
Denne historien er fra June 03, 2020-utgaven av Shooting Times & Country.
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Denne historien er fra June 03, 2020-utgaven av Shooting Times & Country.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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United we stand
Following United Utilities' decision to end grouse shooting on its land, Lindsay Waddell asks what will happen if we ignore our vital moors
Serious matters
An old gamebook prompts a contemplation on punt-gunning
They're not always as easy as they seem
While coneys of the furry variety don't pose a problem for Blue Zulu, he's left frustrated once again by bolting bunnies of the clay sort
Debutant gundogs
There's lots to think about when it comes to making the decision about when to introduce your dog to shooting
When the going gets rough
Al Gabriel returns to the West London Shooting School to brush up on his rough shooting technique
The Field Guide To British Deer - BDS 60th Anniversary Edition
In this excerpt from the 60th anniversary edition of the BDS's Field Guide To British Deer, Charles Smith-Jones considers the noise they make
A step too far?
Simon Garnham wonders whether a new dog, a new gun and two different fields in need of protection might have been asking too much for one afternoon's work
Two bucks before breakfast
A journey from old South London to rural Hertfordshire to stalk muntjac suggests that the two aren't as far detached as they might seem
Stalking Diary
Stalkers can be a sentimental bunch, and they often carry a huge attachment to their hill
Gamekeeper
Alan Edwards believes unique, private experiences can help keepers become more competent and passionate custodians of the countryside