The Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation
Two entries tie for gold in top Purdey conservation award.
Wild Grey Partridge return to the South Downs
The Duke of Norfolk Wins the 2010 Purdey Gold award for The successful restoration of Wild Grey Partridge to his South Downs estate near Arundle
An ambitious and innovative wild game conservation project over six years, led and masterminded by the Duke of Norfolk to successfully re-establish substantial wild grey ‘English’ partridge populations on two Arundel Estate farms in the South Downs National Park, has won the 2010 Gold Shield at the Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation.
The Duke learned of his success at the annual Awards held in London last Thursday,(18th November)when The Duke of Northumberland,(Purdey Gold Award winner in 2007) announced that the Peppering Shoot Project had won the coveted Purdey Shield, and the £5000 Gold Award.
Ten further awards were presented across the evening, including the Purdey Silver Award, and £2000, to brothers Andrew and William Pitts from Northamptonshire for exemplary shoot and game management.
There were two Purdey Bronze Awards presented and £500 each, to John Lennie of Warrington, and Chris Spence of Calbourne, Isle of Wight. They were both recognised for their outstanding conservation led shoots with a strong community spirit.
Two Special Awards of £1000 were also announced. The first was to Colin Blanchard and Malcolm Riding, from the Northern School of Game and Wildlife in Cumbria, and to Graham Downing, and the Alde and Ord Wildfowlers Association in Suffolk.
Richard Purdey, who has organised the Awards since 1999, said:
‘We are delighted to be presenting this year’s Purdey Gold Award to the Duke of Norfolk and his team. It is thoroughly well deserved recognition for their dedication and determination to restore wild grey partridge on the South Downs. Sixty years ago these game birds were commonplace over this stretch of countryside, but 5 years ago there were none. Now, thanks to the Duke, the grey partridge are back in West Sussex, and on a growing island of partridge manors, just as it used to be. The Peppering Shoot is a shining example of how shooting and conservation march hand in hand. It will doubtless surprise many people that it is not just grey partridge which have benefited from this work, but many other songbird and wildlife species as well, all contributing to a major improvement in the overall biodiversity of this area. However, without the partridge shooting, this conservation work would never have happened.’
And the winners are.........
The Peppering Shoot, Arundel, West Sussex
The Purdey Shield, the Gold Award and £5,000 + Jeroboam Laurent-Perrier Champagne
The Duke of Norfolk was awarded the coveted Purdey Gold Award through his ambition, vision, and determination to succeed over six years with his project to restore coveys of all wild grey partridge to his corner of the South Downs.
The Duke’s stated aim with the project is to show what can be done in a traditional wild partridge area, and to encourage other landowners and shooting tenants to bolt on their own wild partridge shoots with the objective of creating a nationally important wild partridge area on the South Downs. This will not only bring huge conservation benefits for wildlife, but also demonstrate how shooting and conservation work together to improve the countryside.
Mears Ashby Grange, Northamptonshire
The Purdey Silver Award
£2,000 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne
Andrew and William Pitts farm 680 acres in Northamptonshire, in three units, on which they specialise in producing seed quality wheat. One of these, Grange Farm at Mears Ashby, accommodates their shoot, where they carry out all keepering and conservation work themselves.
The project proves that it can be economically viable to farm in an environmentally friendly way, while also having an excellent wild bird shoot.
The Pitts brothers are true enthusiasts equally passionate about their farming, their conservation work and their shoot. They actively promote good PR with farm open days in order to meet and talk with a wide variety of organisations such as the RSPB and CPRE. Pupils from their local primary school are regular visitors to Grange Farm as it is approved by the OFSTED Community Cohesion Link scheme.
Rixton Firs Shoot, Warrington, Cheshire
The Purdey Bronze Award
£500 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne
Rixton Firs is a remarkable twenty year project which has turned 54 acres of swampy Cheshire woodland into what was later described as a wildlife wonderland enabling with a delightful small shoot and a strong local community spirit.
The project was started 20 years ago by John Lennie, who intended to use the wood for pigeon shooting – and then started to improve things. Since then members of the syndicate led by Mr. Lennie, and assisted by Alan Taylor, have turned Rixton Firs from a dense sterile wood into a productive small shoot embracing many excellent conservation measures to improve game and wildfowl habitats. This has hugely improved the environment of an area which previously hosted very little wildlife at all.
New Barn Shoot, Calbourne, Isle of Wight
The Purdey Bronze Award
£500 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne
Chris Spence was commended for his beautifully positioned, well managed, community spirited, 500 acre shoot at New Barn Farm, Calbourne, on the Isle of Wight. Mr. Spence has been actively and energetically engaged in conservation-led improvements since 1996.
The judges applauded Mr Spence’s ongoing efforts, in creating an excellent shoot with an abundance of wildlife and the much improved biodiversity.
Newton Rigg, Penrith, Cumbria
Purdey Special Award
£1,000 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne
Colin Blanchard and Malcolm Riding were recognised for their leadership in achieving consistent high standards for the University of Carlisle’s Northern School of Game and Wildlife at Newton Rigg in Cumbria. The game management courses are run by Malcolm and Colin and the fine reputation of the college, which was built up by its many students who learned the essentials of their craft at Newton Rigg, speaks for itself. The judges were greatly impressed by the thoroughness of the courses and the quality of training provided.
Aldeburgh Town Ponds, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
Purdey Special Award
£1,000 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne
Graham Downing, Secretary of the Alde and Ore Association (and association members), were commended for their work in the restoration of the Aldeburgh Town Ponds in Suffolk, owned by Aldeburgh Town Council.
The Alde and Ore Wildfowlers Association managed successfully to negotiate a ten year lease of the shooting rights over an area of old ponds and reed beds against competition from both the RSPB and the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. With the assurance of a ten year lease under their belts they were able to restore the ponds from their derelict and overgrown state changing what had become an eyesore into an attractive civic amenity. The ponds now attract a wide variety of migratory duck, providing the members with a few days duck flighting each winter.
Plumpton College, East Sussex
Purdey - Highly Commended
Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne
The Plumpton College shoot was recognised for the students’ efforts in achieving a high standard of game and habitat management, and under the supervision of tuition team Neil Bianchi and his son Jamie, for the efficient running of syndicate shoot days.
The college shoot is run over 500 acres of the college’s 2000 acre arable and livestock farm at the foot of the South Downs escarpment. The game management team have also recently restored three ponds to encourage wild duck, and cleared two streams. Plumpton college focuses largely on land based courses, including game and shoot management.
Cauldshiel, East Lothian Purdey-Highly Commended Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne Keith Maxwell, owner of The Cauldshiel Farm shoot, was commended for his sound shoot management and conservation efforts, not only providing friends and family with three high quality shoot days a season, but with a great sense of achievement for their improvements to the overall biodiversity of the farm. Cauldshiel was cited as being a well run non commercial shoot with strong local community involvement. It was highlighted that over the past 25 years, Mr Maxwell has undertaken extensive planting programmes to create new hedges and woodland, and dug new ponds which are successfully attracting duck. All these well proven conservation measures are encouraged by the desire to improve the shoot, and have succeeded in endowing Cauldshiel with much greater biodiversity than was the case a quarter of a century ago.
Ben Rinnes, Aberlour, Morayshire
Purdey-Finalist Certificate
Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne
Dick Bartlett, shoot tenant of Ben Rinnes, Glenrinne and Drummuir Estates, in Aberlour, Morayshire, was recognised for his dedication to the conservation of the local area.
Nine years ago, Dick Bartlett set up the British Moorlands project in order to tend to a number of previously unmanaged moors, amongst them - Ben Rinnes, Glenrinnes and Drummuir Estates. Through the creation of ponds, management of wetlands and targeted predator control, Bartlett has managed to run successful shooting days across the estates, and has future plans to extend his British Moorlands project to other areas where grouse production has become impossible over the last four decades.
Criftins Farm Shoot, Ellesmere Shropshire
Purdey-Finalist Certificate
Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne
Mr. and Mrs. Bevan, who run the Criftins Farm Shoot, were rewarded for the high standards they had achieved in running their exemplary farm shoot.
David Bevan, a former FWAG (Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group) award winner was commended for his well established and well run farm shoot. David and Ann Bevan took on the full time running of the shoot in 2008 after they had discontinued dairying. They have exciting plans to develop their shoot further, with increasing emphasis on game and wildlife habitat management and conservation.
Westcroft, Whitehaven, Cumbria
Purdey-Finalist Certificate
Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne
Gordon Thomson, owner of the Westcroft Shoot, was rewarded for successfully increasing the number of hand reared and wild game birds across fifty two acres and for his work over several years in developing a high quality small shoot.
In the past eight years Gordon has planted in excess of 3000 trees, created three ponds and successfully bred wild grey partridge into the area.
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The annual Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation aim to encourage imaginative conservation projects which improve habitats for both reared and wild game birds, and which in the process benefit other species of flora and fauna and enhance enjoyment of the shoot and of the countryside.
James Purdey & Sons Ltd has been a member of the Richemont Group of companies since 1994.
For further information on the panel of judges, or for more in-depth information on the winners, images etc. please contact:
Brian MacLaurin Associates Rania@brianmaclaurin.com or 020 834 1806
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