Rise of the redlegs

When was the red-legged partridge introduced into Britain?

Although a few sporadic attempts to introduce redlegs were made in the late 17th and early 18th century, notably at Belvoir Castle in 1682, the first really successful introduction was around 1770, when Lord Rendlesham and the Earl of Hertford brought them from France to their estates near Woodbridge in Suffolk, where the light sandy soils and heathland habitat suited the birds and they quickly became established. In 1823, Lords Alvanley and de Ros imported eggs from France and these were hatched at Culford and Cavenham near Bury St Edmunds, from where the birds spread into Norfolk and Lincolnshire.

Wild redlegs spread north and west from East Anglia. By 1835 they were recorded in Yorkshire, and by 1851 they had spread to Nottinghamshire. Today, fluctuations in the wild breeding population are heavily masked by large-scale annual rearing and releasing. GD

Red-legged partridges were brought over from France and quickly took to British soil