BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Sir Johnny Scott is a fine man. If you want to learn about the British Countryside, please refrain from turning to the hucksters or doomscultists. Instead look for someone like Sir J who has lived, worked and breathed our Countryside – I am sure he won’t mind me saying – for rather a few years. Always better to find a doer covered … Continue reading The Countryman Sets Forth Again
A new survey has shown a 57% increase in eagle nests in only 7 years in Scotland on land managed by professional gamekeepers. The national study, following on from similar surveys in 2013 and 2015, was conducted by The Scottish Gamekeepers Association, which has 5300 members in Scotland. Officials asked members for locational details of active eagle nests on the ground they manage, with 35 … Continue reading Major Eagle Nest Increase on Gamekeeper Managed Land
The natural beauty of the countryside has always been a source of inspiration for human expression in art. There are countless water colour paintings of the UK’s rolling hills, thatched roofs, and babbling brooks, each one offering up a snapshot of the countryside’s picturesque landscapes. Music, movies, and television have also regularly turned to the country for ideas. You only need to look at the … Continue reading Video Games Inspired by the Countryside
BY BERT BURNETT This is a picture put up by the Cairngorms National Park. Beautiful isn’t it? But what this photograph fails to reveal is that this is what the area looked like before the Park Authorities took over. It’s looked like this for decades if not longer, thanks to the management that was in place before not the management that we have now. Such … Continue reading Real or a Postcard?
BY SUFFOLK & NORFOLK RAT PACK Before the first sunrise of 2023 the pack had assembled. Although some had bleary eyes everyone was rearing to get to work. We received a call from a farmer telling us he needed to clear some bales that he knew were full of rats. He was about to poison them, however he was delighted we could attend at short … Continue reading Exploding with Rats
BY BERT BURNETT Loch Lomond was once a stronghold for capercaillie but thanks to RSPB type management where nature takes its own course the capercaillie is now gone forever. It has been suggested for years that the way to bring back capercaillie is to rear and release but RSPB have effectively blocked any attempts for this to happen. They encourage releases with so many other … Continue reading The RSPB Works in Mysterious Ways
BY BERT BURNETT The RSPB only ten years ago were practising this technique and they know its benefits for wildlife and fire mitigation but they have chosen to ignore what they know and use this fire management as a club to attack the shooting industry with. According to them fire is only destructive when carried out by gamekeepers and other upland managers. They have even … Continue reading Why Do the RSPB Feel the Need to Lie about Fire Management?
BY BRENDAN ANDERSON This is what happens when greys come into contact with red squirrels. It can take up to 14 days to die and the pain is unbearable – a very slow death. If we cannot stop this, there is no hope for the reds. Best estimates state that the greys currently stand between 2.5 and 2.7 million whereas the reds number a mere … Continue reading Protecting the Reds
BY JIM WEBSTER Our esteemed editor turned up here. He wasn’t eaten by the dog, outran the bull and generally fitted in pretty well. He even likes Gregg’s sausage rolls with Brown Sauce. But then you listen to his life story, throw away lines about banking, rugby played under strange stars, and you ask yourself how somebody ends up a countryman (or countrywoman, or for … Continue reading What Makes a Countryman or Countrywoman?
BY CAPTAIN ED SWALES Isn’t it interesting to see what gets flushed out once you put the dogs in? Following the joy of seeing so many wonderfully attended Boxing Day meets the length and breadth of the country, what was completely absent was any evidence of the alleged 85% of the population who are so rabidly opposed to hunting. That is because that figure is … Continue reading Exasperated Indeed
BY GILES BRADSHAW When the Hunting Act was passed I wrote to Defra questioning the legality of my use of dogs to manage wild deer in my woods. My procedure is very simple. I walk the dog through the woods off the lead. That’s it. As I pointed out at the time to Defra this inevitably causes dispersal of the deer including them being flushed … Continue reading The Absurd Law Trumped by Common Sense
BY ROGER WATSON I have just spent one of several weeks this year working in Italy. As with most countries I visit regularly, after initial impressions are over about similarities and differences, once you get to know more people and to know them in depth, you appreciate more of the differences and begin to understand at least part of what makes Italians the way they … Continue reading Have We Lost Our Link to the Land?
BY JOHN NASH Country Squire readers will recall Australia’s terrifying Black Summer, 2019/20, when massive bush fires burned some 35 million acres, destroyed an estimated 3 billion vertebrates (perhaps driving a number to extinction), wrecked scores of irreplaceable rock paintings, wiped out 3000 buildings and, sadly, 47 people died. The tragedy may have cost Australia as much as A$80 billion. Now research has revealed the … Continue reading A Burning Issue
BY SARAH GREENWOOD A note follows from Sarah to Dai Bradley (pictured twice below), who played Billy Casper in Barry Hines’ film ‘Kes’. Sarah met Dai/Billy at a showing of Hines’ film The Gamekeeper in Barnsley last month. Ay up Billy! Asta got tahm for a chat? A’ just want t’ clear summat up after that talk we ‘ed ‘t’other neet. at’t Civic It wor … Continue reading The Gamekeeper Revisited
BY MARGARET ASHWORTH I find it surprising how few rabbits I see round here in Lancashire – I think I have seen more hares. I am old enough (just) to remember seeing masses of rabbits on lawns nibbling the grass down to the roots. Then came rabbit Armageddon. I have been reading a book enticingly titled Myxamatosis by Peter Bartrip. This was a pandemic if ever there was … Continue reading The Rabbit Pandemic
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The magnificence of this country is that one never knows what pot of joy or genius one might find down a country lane or hidden away in some random-looking terrace. I suppose that those less appreciative of laissez-faire society would argue the flip side; that British tolerance and enduring liberties facilitate the opposite too. To be fair, ammo dumps are seldom but … Continue reading Webster
BY MURRAY F HUNTER Our much-loved Borders landscape is under attack from three directions by forces that someone sitting in an office – never having been to our area – could easily sign off as ticking all the boxes, as if that is the best we could do for the environment and global warming. The first is from wind. As I understand it, with permission, … Continue reading The Hills and Fields of Eskdale
BY RORY CRANSTOUN In an episode of Chopper’s Politics, I was unfortunately reminded of Boris Johnson’s plan to usher in a so-called ‘green industrial revolution’ in Britain. Obviously another crypto-globalist fever dream poorly wrapped in Conservative paper, the Tory drive towards ‘net-zero’ is nothing more than another example of the all familiar promises to greenify our society. ‘Green’ public transport. ‘Green’ electric vehicles. ‘Green’ buildings; whatever … Continue reading The Scouring of the Shires
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The drive from Gatwick Airport into the heart of the Surrey villages was a magnificent one. The network of winding country lanes from Charlwood across Dorking and through to the duck pond at Shamley Green were breath-taking on a summer’s day. So stunning that our usual taxi driver, Mr Ford – a driver of Vauxhalls – once told us that he drove … Continue reading Sign Creep
BY FRANK WRIGHT We have seen of late the spread of farmers protests – from the Dutch, who object to a third of their farmland being seized by politicians, to Italy, Germany, Spain, and Macedonia. This is a striking indication of the deep division between people and politics in the management system known as Western democracy. The issues which drive cultural conflict within nations are those concentrated in … Continue reading Collapse into Necessity
