“Perfect small sporting estate” wins Purdey gold

The winners of the Purdey Awards 2018 have been announced. The awards celebrate the best in game and conservation.

The gold award was won by Rob and Helen

Brown of the Howesyke shoot, Yorkshire, for converting an intensively managed hill farm into what the judges called “a perfect small sporting estate”. The project included planting more than 100,000 broadleaf trees, a successful blackgrouse reestablishment scheme and restoring 900 acres of peat.

The silver award went to the Burnham Thorpe syndicate in Norfolk for developing a shoot that sustains a viable population of grey partridges. Alongside planting and managing wild bird food strips, the shoot has planted 22 acres of brood rearing cover, providing year-round shelter.

The bronze award went to Alastair Salvesen and Whitburgh Farms for their grey partridge recovery project, which has seen seven per cent of the agricultural land on the farms taken out of cultivation and given over to wildlife.

A special award went to Richard Gould for his work as headkeeper at Ixworth Thorpe, Suffolk, and highly commended awards were given to David J. Owen of the Camddwr Shooting Society and David Pooler of the Rhug estate. There is still time to enter the GWCT traditional grouse grand draw. The winner and eight friends can enjoy a day’s grouse shooting at the Glenogil estate in the Scottish Highlands.

Visit www.gwct.org.uk/ for more information and to buy tickets.

The Howesyke shoot in Yorkshire won the Purdey 2018 gold award