Ladies seize the day at Belvoir
A team of lady Guns – with their menfolk on hand to load – enjoy a partridge day at the castle. Report by Adrian Dangar
"Get stuck in, shoot safe and enjoy the day"
Irealise this is no ordinary shoot when a butler approaches from beneath the towering ramparts of a magnificent castle to offer a choice of sauces to go with my pre-shoot bacon butty. The Leicestershire fortress has been the seat of successive Dukes of Rutland since the 16th-century, and the lady serving coffee outside the portico entrance – the eye is drawn in equal measure to her immaculate Crow and Jester shooting suit and futuristic, Covid-compliant visor – is none other than Emma, Duchess of Rutland. As her personal assistant and Belvoir shoot sales manager Charlotte Ayliff explains, the first let day of the season was presented with a huge challenge when new Covid regulations came into force just a few days earlier. “Thankfully, BASC were straight onto the case and quickly published a booklet explaining exactly how shoots must comply with the new laws,” Ayliff says, “but we did have to undertake a second risk assessment at the start of the week. I’m delighted to say our track-andtrace documentation is in order and we have put all the necessary procedures in place to keep everyone safe.”
With 130 days a year and five full-time gamekeepers, the shoot at Belvoir is big business and a major employer in the locality. The team on the ground is headed up by Nick Pacey, who combines the roles of shoot manager, headkeeper and proprietor of a thriving security business – “we’ve shut down all criminal activity on the estate” – with quiet confidence. Pacey began his career here as a 15-yearold back in 1981 before moving to Clumber Park as the youngest headkeeper in the land. He returned to Belvoir having worked at Garthorpe, Kings Walden and Quenby, following the mantra, “good birds, properly reared”. The 16,500-acre Belvoir estate, nearly a third of which comprises woodland, parkland and pasture, provides some 130 days driven partridge and pheasant shooting each year on ground that is both tenanted and farmed in hand. Land farmed by the estate is home to some 1,400 ewes and lambs, Shorthorn and pedigree Hereford cattle, and an extensive arable enterprise where game crops are sited strategically for shooting.
During his introductory talk beneath the imposing castle, Pacey refers to the current challenges and reminds guests of the new regulations. He ends by urging them to “get stuck in, shoot safe and enjoy the day”. Reference to the dreaded virus aside, this is Pacey’s standard shoot talk but, on this occasion, he is addressing an all-female line-up of Guns. The team has been put together by Anna Sawford, whose involvement in the sport dates back six years to her meeting with keen shot Wally French. “To be outside in the fresh air, working dogs and enjoying the camaraderie was just an incredible experience,” she remembers.
When Sawford applied for a shotgun certificate so she could transport French’s guns, the policeman who called round to interview her suggested she take a couple of lessons. “One thing led to another and after a few sessions at clays, I was completely hooked,” she laughs. After being given a “beautifully light and specially fitted” Beretta Vittoria 20-bore for her birthday, Sawford was ready to put spectating behind her and stand on a peg. “Women haven’t always been welcome
the shooting field, but that’s all changing and I have lots of girlfriends who are keen shots,” she reveals. “I went on an all-girl clay shoot last week and it was hilarious, such fun. This is the first time I have hosted a day; it’s about role reversal, having a wonderful time and enjoying the experience.”
Girls are in the spotlight today, but all have arrived with at least one male companion to assist with loading and other duties. Gracie Horrell – she’s one to watch, I am told – has the benefit of her experienced father, Eric Elliott; others have brought along husbands or partners, who are about to learn what it is like to spectate at a driven shoot. These include Mark Tinsley, whose wife, Linda, has recently joined a hitherto men-only syndicate in North Yorkshire, and estate manager Phil Burtt, whose daughter, Lou, is one of the Guns. Charlotte Ayliff has keen hunting man and local farmer Harry Baines to assist, whilst Kate Brindley, who started picking up 15 years ago, has opted for the guidance of a professional coach. “I’ve been shooting for the past couple of years and recently joined a syndicate – once I became accepted as a picker-up, it was a case of how I can shock the men again,” she jokes.
The excitement is palpable as Guns and helpers line a shallow arable valley at Phil’s Folly, which, in common with all today’s drives, is on Peter Holland’s beat. Several hundred red-legs, which have been blanked into a long strip of maize concealed from the Guns by a tall thorn hedge, are soon streaming over the line. On this warm and dry September morning, there are birds of every quality and so many in the sky at once that selecting the best is challenging, but there is an audible ripple of admiration after Gill Van Geest cleanly kills one of the highest of the drive.
Ayliff has also found form on the end of the line and, as anticipated, Horrell is elegance personified as she calmly, selectively and successfully deals with birds heading her way. There is such a prodigious show of game that the whistle is blown to signal the end of the drive before the beaters have advanced more than a quarter of the way down the strip of maize.
As the pickers-up set to work, I notice a tall and distinguished-looking man chatting to guests. John Shearon is immaculately attired in corn-coloured shooting socks, silk tie and a coat tailored from the Belvoir estate’s winter tweed, the ensemble set off by a jaunty trilby. Big John – as he is known – has been involved with the shoot ever since he arrived from the coalmining heart of South Yorkshire to take up a position on the estate as a beat keeper in 1974. “I have always fished, caught rabbits and shot pigeons,” he recalls, “and keepering was the only job I ever wanted to do, but it were a closed shop you see. I used to work nights down the pit and help out gamekeepers by day.”
Big John’s lucky break came after he had completed the Game Conservancy’s gamekeeping course at Fordingbridge in Hampshire. “It’s not a job, it’s a pastime,” he says fondly of his five decades at Belvoir. “Although I’m retired now, I still turn
It’s about role reversal, having a wonderful time and enjoying the day
Top row: lady Guns and helpers assemble at Belvoir Castle for the first let day of last season; Shirley Deterding talks to Phil Burtt between drives; Wally French. Second row: Linda Tinsley with her loader for the day, husband Mark; shoot manager Nick Pacey with ‘Big John’ Shearon. Third row: Emma, Duchess of Rutland offers sustenance while Covid compliant; the Belvoir Castle vista was designed by Capability Brown. Fourth row: Charles, Marquess of Granby; Gill Van Geest; Anna Sawford, who put the team together.
Bottom row: style to the fore; lunch at Frog Hollow, a delightful woodland glade beside the lake; Alex Beynon
out for every shoot day. I’ve always been well looked after here; the family have been brilliant and I’ll be in an estate house for the rest of my life.”
According to Charles, Marquess of Granby, who is picking up with his two labradors, Big John is very much part of the scenery. “Everyone knows him and all the ladies like to be photographed with him,” says the heir apparent to the Dukedom of Rutland. “We don’t have a shoot here without Big John.”
The next drive is known as Branston Road, although there is no Tarmac within sight of Guns lining grassy slopes, where closecropped sheep pasture defers to drifts of thick rushes on the valley floor. A loud hum as hundreds of partridges take wing, not unlike the sound of swarming bees, heralds the start of 15 minutes of continuous action as wave after wave of birds soar over the line. Afterwards, we travel in convoy for elevenses, overlooking a panorama first conceived by Capability Brown for his patron, the 4th Duke of Rutland. The designer died before the project was finished but the discovery of plans drawn up in 1780 allowed the completion of work that had begun nearly a quarter of a century earlier.
Standing high above us in the middle distance, with an aura of unassailable grandeur, Belvoir Castle provides a dramatic backdrop to the pastoral setting, which is enhanced by the distant music of hounds singing from their kennels somewhere across the water. The Belvoir’s famous pack of old English foxhounds has been kennelled here since its foundation in 1760 and continues to entertain its followers across Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. “The shoot has an excellent relationship with the hunt,” confirms Pacey. “We work together and help each other out whenever possible.”
Birds trickle through the line, slowly to begin with at Transformer, the trickle turning into a steady and evenly distributed flow of game as the drive gets properly underway. Shirley Deterding, who is clearly no stranger to the shooting field and has written an entertaining book about her sporting adventures in Africa and elsewhere, kills a succession of good birds, much to the vocal satisfaction of Wally French, who is watching everyone’s performance with eagle eyes. “My father wanted lots of boys, but all he got was me,” she says. “In the fullness of time, I taught all my own children to shoot, too.” All the Guns are on form for the fourth and final drive at Alice’s Lane, after which we repair to Frog Hollow, an enchanting lakeside glade surrounded by mature woodland.
Here, guests enjoy lunch cooked on a barbecue, gathering in obligatory groups of six at socially distanced round tables, which seems a small price to pay for such an affable and entertaining day. The post-shoot banter is loud and cheery. “I can’t tell you how delighted we are to have got the shoot season at Belvoir underway,” enthuses Emma, Duchess of Rutland. “We have had to make some really tough decisions since March, but it’s now all hands on deck to keep the castle and the estate going forward. We are adhering to all the necessary guidelines, whilst hopefully maintaining some socially distanced fun – the shoot here is a beacon of consistency during such uncertain times and continues to provide full- and part-time employment for so many local people.”
For information on shooting at Belvoir, call 01476 871019 or email: shoot@belvoircastle.com