Voices of the Countryside

You may have seen the story: the 2010 Equality Act could protect people who hunt. Here’s how it could play.   An interview at the Carter Jonas Game Fair Theatre has led to column inches and TV debates. Ed Swales of Hunting Kind, a group dedicated to ‘natural hunting’ with hound, ferret and hawk, obtained legal opinion which says that people who hunt could have “protected characteristics” under the...

My faithful farm truck sits in the yard, not exactly sure how it is supposed to spend its days - or justify its hefty running costs. What's the future for such a loyal beast? Join me, if you will, in some automotive anthropomorphism, and spare a thought for Tigger the Terracan, who sits in the farmyard, having a bit of an existential crisis. Tigger, you see, is my farm 4x4, and, since our semi-ret...

The life of a huntsman can sound idyllic – but life in kennels is tougher than it might look   For many a young thruster, or a hound-loving puppy walker, being a huntsman is the ultimate dream job.  To have your very own pack of hounds who look to you for instruction; to lead the pack in your scarlet coat, and uncover the mystery of the ‘golden thread’ – the so-called invisible connection between...

We pay a high price for the privilege of getting lost in the back country - but is it worth it?   I was not new to it - it was my third day hunting quail in Arizona so I knew what I should expect, but the frigid air that hit me was a surprise. I had never had to travel in the small hours before. It was necessary to get where we were going and leave enough of the early morning for hunting. Joe appe...

Looking ahead to the new grouse season, I think about my own birds in Galloway and the national picture at a time of great change and upheaval in Scotland.   The signs are set for a decline into autumn, and the moor grass has turned into straw. The start of the grouse season is upon us, and there’s a certain amount to look forward to in the hills of home. Despite some rough weather in the middle o...

With record numbers of A level students shunning University courses, can Modern Apprenticeships be the means of filling the gaps in our 'lost rural skills'.   For over one million young Brits, the next few days will be a time of heightened nervous excitement and anticipation. They wait on tenterhooks for the 15th August, when the results of their A level, T level, and AS levels are released. The s...

Come the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, I shall be in Team GB - so long as they change the events What impressed you most at the Olympics opening ceremony this year? Axelle Saint-Cirel’s magnificent rendition of La Marseillaise, surely the world’s most stirring national anthem? The can-can dancers? Or perhaps Alexandre Kantorow tinkling away on his piano despite the deluge? For me, I’m ashamed to s...

In today's increasingly urbanised and digital society, young people are more disconnected from nature and the countryside than ever before. But in the absence of any kind of national plan to re-engage them with wildlife and ecosystems, how can parents and caregivers encourage kids to take an interest in the natural world, and what are the pitfalls to watch out for?  George Browne and Marcus Jansse...

What does a country boy and angler do on holiday when he’s left his rods at home and is reading a book by Hunter S.Thompson? The answer is to reflect on really unimportant things in life, like why are cricket and fishing actually the same. Shit it’s hot. It’s 35 degrees out there, the sand burns the skin off the bottom of my feet, and I could do with a large rum in a glass full of ice. I want to w...

Sharing some of my personal experiences and stories from the moors of ground nesting birds, their parenting skills and what I have learnt along the way! One of the Scribehound team once told me that one has 3 seconds to capture to someone's attention on social media otherwise they move on. A rather sad but true indictment of our society today. The irony is not lost on me when comparing the hours I...

With demands on the public purse being extremely high, should politicians be doing more to fund and facilitate bottom-up land management solutions such as Farmer Clusters which are proven to deliver more bang for the conservation buck? My solitary four-hour drive home from Oxford to Aberystwyth marked the end of a week engaged in conversation about future land management in the UK. This started at...

As a fishing agent, I'm often asked what the difference is between a ghillie and a fishing guide. While the two roles are similar, there are important differences. When out fishing it is often common to have a ghillie or a guide available to aid you in your adventure. The differences between the terms “ghillie” and a “guide” can sometimes cause confusion, and even become a bone of contention. It i...

Rewilding is swiftly becoming a religion - a belief system with little evidence to support its claims - but is this a sane way to manage our landscapes?   Re-wilding is a very clever idea. It is very difficult to be against re-wilding. It would be a bit like being against nostalgia. It has a vague warmth about it.  It has no downside because whatever happens, it will be what nature intended.  It h...

How Olympic history should never forget it's rural roots, integrity, or the source of so many of our medallists   24 years ago, I experienced a wonderful example of good manners - and all about a sporting event taking place the other side of the world. As Chairman of the Campaign for Shooting, I had been approached by Ian Coley, the Alex Ferguson of the British Olympic Clay Team, for sponsorship t...

It is time that the building industry embraced change. Good for the planet and good for their profits. And good for government building targets. Currently we are building about 150,000 houses a year. The new Government plan to raise that to 300,000 houses a year to help house the 3 million odd immigrants let into the country over the last few years by the previous government. Not to mention of cou...

Wood pigeons are rightly regarded as a top-tier sporting bird, but what with wasps, nettles, the need for truckloads of clobber and the quarry's uncooperative nature, decoying them can be a pain in the proverbial Anybody will tell you that there is no better sport to be had than decoying pigeons. In fact, everybody will tell you that there is no better sport to be had than decoying pigeons. I've s...

I got bored of waiting and got lucky with hope and practical activism   Don’t laugh, but I once nearly went into mainstream politics. Never mind when and for whom, but let me reassure you that the dream was a short one. I came to the early conclusion that there was a limited amount that a thin-skinned Etonian of no settled world view and the attention span of a mayfly had to offer people fighting...

Finding a copy of Trout & Salmon from 1994 shows that we’re still talking about the same environmental, and geopolitical, issues three decades on. A wormy start “Look what I’ve found Papa!”  I held up an oozing earthworm, my hands blackened by Hebridrean peat.  The year was 1994, I was five years old, and we were on a family holiday to the Isle of Lewis.  My enthusiasm for a day spent trout fishin...

Creating a wildflower meadow will put you in touch with nature and feed the soul. Here's how any old fool can do it...   At the bottom of my garden there’s a long wooden fence that, in my mind’s eye, performs a vaguely-similar function to the Berlin Wall of the late 1970s. On one side, you find a small paddock grazed by half a dozen Jacob sheep. They belong to my parents, who live next door, and t...

A day out with the Eastern Counties Mink Hunt is never dull nor dry. I ventured out with this wonderful group of eccentrics to recapture my lost youth and pass on the mink hunting baton to my son   I learned many life lessons on river banks in my early teens. I gleaned the art of stealth and concealment when watching wild trout and chub take naps, the only indication their piscine hearts still pum...

The latest plan to help Scotland get back in touch with its true wild self is to reintroduce lynx, a big cat and apex predator, to control deer numbers. But can Scotland follow Switzerland's lead? Or is this all just land reform by stealth? Tales of the riverbank with a difference - the story of the beaver, the big cat and the eagle. Sounds like the kind of story that would be written by Kenneth G...

A few months ago, I wrote a column on Scribehound called Ancient Hunting Stories: The Origins of Human Culture?. In it I explored the idea that aside from opposable thumbs, the thing that really sets humanity apart from other animals is our love of stories.    Stories follow (or subvert) patterns, and our brains are essentially pattern recognition engines, so we see narratives everywhere we look....

Working summer jobs on farms did me a world of good. Could a programme to put 18 year olds to work on farms make the country a better place and help to fix our food systems?   I’m sorry to bring up the election again - it has been a fortnight so I’m sure you’ve been happily getting on with your life not thinking about politics, but something that was in the headlines in the early stages of the cam...

Some love it; some hate it; but is the ‘back gun’ a symptom of a wider problem in game shooting? I have a confession: walking gun is one of my favourite places to be on a game shoot. I say that even as a member of the gun trade who, when asked to ‘go with the beaters’ invariably ends up with a performance review committee of customers past and present scrutinising one's every miss. It is at times...

Before I continue I'd like to just confirm I couldn't smell any patchouli (or BO) and there were no hairy armpits on show (to my knowledge). Back to this in a moment. The first was a screening of Isabella Tree's Wilding. A documentary shot at the Knepp Estate in Horsham, West Sussex. The second, I was on a panel at a local agricultural college hosted by Royal Agricultural Society of England and In...