Warwick Hall is a great base from which to visit a host of attractions, including Hadrian’s Wall, the Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Dalemain House and Lowther Castle & Gardens.

Any driving north on the M6 for the Lake District or Scotland tends to breathe a sigh of relief when the ‘Wrenaissance’ Ashton Memorial at Lancaster hoves into view. There is then the welcome prospect of a pit stop at the bustling Tebay farm shop and a road that becomes less populated by the mile. But what if the weary traveller fancies a break to visit Ruskin’s house at Brantwood, the fells of Wordsworth and Shelley or Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top house near Windermere? Warwick Hall, two miles off the motorway at Carlisle, provides the perfect answer. This splendid mansion has 10 en-suite bedrooms, a well-stocked drinks tray in the drawing room and tranquil garden views over the parkland and River Eden.

 

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Dogs are welcome throughout the house (Warwick Hall’s owners Val and Nick Marriner have a friendly labrador and working pointer of their own) and can stay in guests’ rooms for a small fee of £15 per night. In addition, there are two miles of level river walks, fishing on the Eden, a fine walled garden and oystercatchers for company. Sheep and lambs graze in the parkland beyond. Val and Nick Marriner came to live at Warwick Hall in 1998. They were attracted not just to the neo-Georgian mansion (rebuilt after a fire in 1936) but to the 260- acre estate of woodland, farmland and two miles of trout and salmon fishing. The banks are carefully tended, making access to the river a pleasure on the two beats: Top Beat and Park Beat. They are said to be the most productive on the Eden with a decent chance of catching salmon, brown trout or grayling, according to the season. There are two comfortable fishing huts and a good tearoom in the village for takeaway sandwiches and soup. Nearby is The Queens pub, serving cask ales and an excellent lunch.

lunch on the terrace

Nick Marriner has established a regarded shoot a short walk from the front door of Warwick Hall and would-be guns can enquire about taking a let day to shoot either here or at nearby estates, such as Castlesteads with its 100- to 150-bird days. Marriner’s own shoot is challenging for all the right reasons, with birds coming off game crops behind lofty escarpments. “The shoot offers high birds and is perfect for shooting parties that want to stay in the house and have complete privacy on the estate,” says Val Marriner. It is also possible to take Warwick Hall in its entirety for special celebrations: a milestone wedding anniversary, birthday or the like.

The New Room, the largest bedroom at Warwick hall

Not only does this beautiful spot exude a timeless tranquillity and informal comfort but it is well equipped for the 21st century. There is an electric-vehicle charger in the driveway (£15 per night) and a conventional petrol station (avoiding the exorbitant motorway charges) half a mile away in the village of Warwick-on-Eden. My large, spacious bedroom boasted double-aspect windows looking over the river, and there was not only a bath but a walk-in shower. This particular room affords views of the ‘Otterstone’, an ancient boulder marking the most northerly boundary of the ancient Forest of Bowland.

The charming Garden Suite

Dining at Warwick Hall commences with drinks in the firelit drawing room at 7pm. It was here I met Val Marriner, who took me (and her dogs) for a walk around the gardens where magnolias and rhododendrons were in glorious bloom. The front garden has a wonderful show of roses and the bow of the River Eden below completes a sylvan scene. Dinner is at 7.30pm but guests who may be held up on the motorway can ring to say if they are going to be late and will be accommodated accordingly.

“We pride ourselves on the best of British cuisine, taking advantage of the wonderful food resources available here in Cumbria,” Val Marriner told me. And so it was to be: gravadlax, succulent chicken fillets and home-made apple crumble. Often on the menu are Cumbrian lamb raised on the local fells, fresh vegetables from the house or nearby farms, and fish freshly caught just off the coast at Maryport. The wine list is small but appropriate. I opted for a decent French white Burgundy at £37. Breakfast is of the same homely and appetising menu, featuring black pudding and Cumberland sausage.

A selection of fresh produce in grown in the grounds

“We hope you’ll find our menus interesting and in the best tradition of British dinner-party cuisine,” Val Marriner had said. It, and my stay, were certainly that: reminiscent for both the traveller and countryman of a ‘home from home’.

Warwick Hall, Warwick-on-Eden, Carlisle, Cumbria CA4 8PG.

Double rooms with B&B from £165 for two people.

GOOD FOR:

• SPORT ON OFFER
• OVERNIGHT PIT STOPS WHEN HEADING NORTH
• DOG FRIENDLY

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Main image credit: Alamy

Stalking has changed in the 173 years The Field  has been covering sporting life. Has any other country sport had their quarry list expanded? Wild boar are back on the menu for UK shooters and wild deer populations have exploded, reaching levels not seen for 1000 years. For recreational stalkers and professional deer managers, the landscape has changed and expanded.

Skill and safety are essential in all conditions, that means being sure of what you see.

Modern deer management must answer increased and complex pressures of population and land use. This year the government announced a 10-year plan to tackle deer impact and Natural England has introduced a new, streamlined night shooting licence, CL55, which came into force in February 2026. Scoping, and for licence holders hunting, in poor visibility and low light, through forestry and dense undergrowth will increase.

These rugged and water resistant binoculars provide multi-spectral capability

The right kit

Skill and safety are essential in all conditions, that means being sure of what you see. The right kit can really help. Technology expands what is possible, more and more gadgets are available but the field is no place for excess luggage. Which is where the Pulsar Symbion comes in. These rugged and water resistant binoculars provide multi-spectral capability with picture in picture and combined modes, wide-field scanning (DXT50) or long-range precision (DXR50), a built-in 1,500m laser range finder coupled with photo and video recording with 64GB of storage to record your adventures. Designed with easy to master controls, for single-handed use, it’s perfect for quick focus and recognition.

Designed with easy to master controls

Peace of mind with Symbion

In autumn light can go quickly, and morning hunts are often hampered by low lying mist – wonderfully picturesque but not conducive to success for stalking. It is reassuring to know that, spotting a cullable beast in changing conditions, you will be able to keep it in sight – reliable identification of a single animal from a browsing group, even in cover, helps turn frustration into a successful cull. Symbion gives stalkers peace of mind, the 4k digital picture gives clear definition during the day, reinforced by thermal imaging as light is lost, together this offers an unbeatable picture across all conditions.

The Pulsar Symbion gives stalkers peace of mind

Whether observing wildlife as recreation or a professional engaged in land and wildlife management requiring reliable identification across various light and terrain the Symbion LRF has you covered. The tripod mount allows secure static set up while the ergonomic single-hand-use design allows for quick confirmation, especially with the option to use thermal and digital images together, either as picture-in-picture or overlaid in one view. The range finder gives accurate information to aid shot placement, reliable game identification, and boundaries where shooting grounds are delineated. One reliable tool optimises your view in all conditions.

Pulsar

So what to do for a wedding gift? Etiquette suggests you should always send a present to the happy couple when you receive an invitation, even if you can’t attend. If there is a wedding list, you could browse through it and make your contribution. Alternatively, if the matrimonially-minded pair are Fieldy types who are fans of the rural life, one of the following might suit perfectly.

Companionable competition. A stylish yet timeless backgammon set which will offer hours of entertainment.

Sorrento backgammon set £425

Jonathan Adler

Parkland bench “Snuggle”

What better to mark the occasion than the gift of a bench? The perfect place to ponder in the garden. From a company that can personalise just about anything, this bijou, two-seater bench is made from sturdy teak so will weather beautifully.

Parkland Bench ‘Snuggle’ from £1,100

The Oak & Rope Company 

Dorset insulated picnic hamper

Married life is certain to be full of picnics for outdoorsy sorts. This smart wicker hamper with handles has a zipped top to ensure goodies stay cool, whether the picnic vibe is riverside or point-to-point.

Dorset insulated picnic hamper £78

Inkerman

Nest pour-over coffee kit

The perfect coffee for two and not a service station stop-off in sight. A compact kit containing two mugs, a reusable filter and dripper. Simply add ground coffee and hot water for a caffeine hit on the go.

Nest pour-over coffee kit £80

VSSL 

We love wild flowers for pepping up spaces on flower beds and transforming quiet corners. Perennial and annual (16 in total) wildflower seed mixes provide a colourful display from June until October. Packed into spent shotgun cartridges, they are bang-on gifts for hosts and pollinators alike.

Wildflower meadow seed gift box £42.50

Natural Shoots 

From field to fork. Josephine Jenno’s inspiration for these plates was the Spanish royal family’s service on display at the Museo Nacional del Prado. Handcrafted in Portugal and dishwasher safe, they pair perfectly with partridge dessert plates.

Pheasant Poetry dinner plates £144 (set of four)

Casa by JJ

Perfect for future point-to-point picnics, summer events, shoot day elevenses, sports day, regattas, cricket matches and much more. Solid and spacious – this mighty cool box holds up to 54 cans – in a vast array of colours.

Tundra 45 cool box £325

Yeti

A small but thoughtful gift. Screen-printed by hand in the UK on natural cotton, these 45cm-square napkins are perfect beside the sea and when wishing you are. Other designs available.

Seafood napkin gift set £55

Lottie Day

An ideal set to see a happy couple through the whole season from Henley to Burghley via Royal Ascot.

Safari dining £442.70 (for four full-size safari chairs and 120cm-long folding rool-top table)

The Well heeled Hippy Store

This galvanised steel boot washer with traditional Georgian styling would not disgrace the smartest entrance. Ideal for anyone hunting the clean boot.

Boot washer £475

Lesser Spotted 

Handmade in Italy, these glasses make any drink worth toasting – even mocktails. And the pretty coloured bowls help guests keep track of their drink.

Ravel glasses £215 for six

Creart

And finally

How about a subscription to The Field magazine for the new couple? It really is the gift that goes on giving, arriving through the letterbox every month, rain or shine.

The Field’s June 2026 diary

1-30 June
Rose Garden 30th Anniversary Celebrations
Borde Hill, West Sussex
Borde Hill

4 June
GWCT Leicestershire and Rutland Clay Day
Prestwold Hall, Loughborough
GWCT

5-7 June
Chestertons Polo in the Park
Hurlingham Park, London
Polo in the Park

5-7 June
South of England Show
Ardingly, West Sussex
South of England Agricultural Society

6-21 June
HSBC Tennis Championships
Queen’s Club, London
LTA

11-14 June
Defender Bramham International Horse Trials
Bramham Park, West Yorkshire
Bramham

11-20 June
Henny Tate ‘Works on Paper’
25 High Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire
Made in the Pewsey Vale

2-14 June
Royal Three Counties Show
Malvern, Worcestershire
Royal Three Counties Show

12-28 June
Aldeburgh Festival
Aldeburgh, Suffolk
BrittenPearsArts

14 June
Cartier Queen’s Club Final
Guards Polo Club, Surrey
Guards Polo Club

16-17 June
Royal Cheshire Show
Tabley, Cheshire
Royal Cheshire Show

16-29 June
Royal Ascot
Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire
Ascot 

Stay up to date

Every month we publish a list of essential diary dates in The Field. Subscribe today, stay informed and save on the cover price.

Best in class

To be ‘Best of British’ is to bring together celebrated heritage, a spirit of relentless innovationand an enduring reputation for quality. Few brands illustrate this more clearly than shotgun cartridge manufacturer Eley Hawk. The company is renowned worldwide as a leading manufacturer of fine shotgun cartridges and is synonymous with quality, reliability and performance. Few other British brands combine such a depth of heritage with a clear determination to evolve through invention.

Eley Hawk was founded in 1828

Historic beginnings

Founded in 1828 in London by brothers William and Charles, Eley Hawk is one of the oldest shotgun cartridge manufacturers in the UK. The business moved from London to the heart of the British gun trade near Birmingham, and the brand is synonymous with innovation whilst holding true to those traditional values that has made them great.  For nearly two centuries, the company has been at the forefront of the shooting industry, creating premium cartridges that deliver exceptional performance for both game and clay shooters. For generations, the report of Eley Hawk cartridges has echoed across Britain’s fields.

A selection of Eley Hawk cartridges

Product development

Drawing on this depth of experience, Eley Hawk has developed a range of products to meet the exacting standards expected by today’s sportsmen and women. Their cartridges are the benchmark by which other companies are judged and a team of company-wide professionals ensure all Eley Hawk ammunition is of the highest possible standard. Every cartridge is designed to deliver dependable performance and cutting-edge technology ensures batch-to-batch consistency and unmatched reliability.

Old and new

With more than 190 years of experience, Eley Hawk’s history is defined not only by longevity but also by innovation. The company pioneered technologies that helped shape modernammunition, from paper cartridges in 1854 to the launch of the iconic Eley Grand Prix in 1903, a cartridge that set the benchmark for decades to come.

Its VIP Game cartridge has long been a trusted choice for game enthusiasts, while Zenith represents the next step in that tradition of innovation. With a wide range of cartridges for all eventualities, they are developing cartridges for the next generation of shots. Eco-components mean shooters can make socially responsible choices, and they lead the way in research and innovation in these sustainable alternatives. They were the first British manufacturer to launch a fully biodegradable and dissolvable wad for steel shot and the company has introduced this cutting-edge Pro Eco Wad technology into it’s wider family of cartridges to become the
perfect choice for the sustainability-minded gun.

A fully biodegradable and dissolvable wad for steel shot

Reaching a Zenith

At the forefront of this innovation is the Zenith, a premium cartridge that uses copper-coated lead shot to deliver superior patterning and consistency. Also available with Eley’s ground-breaking Pro Eco Wad, it hits harder with a consistency that inspires confidence in the field whatever the quarry.

A lead-free future

Alongside their bio-wad, Eley Hawk has developed an extensive range of toxic-free loads in both bismuth and steel shot as the shooting world gradually moves away from lead. Bismuth offers lead-like performance in a premium alternative. Steel is becoming increasingly common, and whilst a complex topic, it is a choice that the new generation of guns require to reflect the changing world of the modern shooter.

Eley Hawk brings together a prestigious past and a forward-thinking approach, balancing tradition with innovation. No other brand of cartridges in the UK has this depth of history, this desire for innovation whilst holding dear to their traditional values, which has made Eley Hawk one of the best-loved cartridges for generations of sportsmen and a truly iconic brand that can be classed as ‘Best of British’.

In order to mix a good whisky cocktail you need the best cocktail making kit. And a man who can handle his jigger and mix a knee-trembler is useful to have around. Too often the homemade British cocktail is marred by poor preparation, not enough ice and inferior equipment. Even if it’s just an annual champagne cocktail before the hunt ball, an aperitif before lunch or digestif after dinner, the cocktail is an occasion. You might sip at a G&T slumped on the sofa in a dog-haired fleece, but not a Manhattan. (See this new take on a negroni, a pimmgroni.)

Connolly has heirloom pieces in the making

There’s a lingering, seductive scent of Hollywood surrounding cocktails. Perhaps this is because so many of the accoutrements of cocktail making are so tactile and elegant. Many shakers are akin to curvaceous works of art.  Connolly has a super range of champagne buckets, cases and glasses – heirloom pieces in the making.

There is an elegance to cocktail-making paraphernalia

We’re huge fans of Life of Riley’s leather mixology box (£920), which contains everything one needs to host a sophisticated soiree.

Life of Riley leather mixology box

Cocktail-making kit also makes superb gifts for those who both enjoy making and drinking cocktails. Inkerman of London has an unusual and chic rose gold shaker that can be personalised with the recipients initials.

A rose gold cocktail shaker from Inkerman of London

But you’re on the hunt for larger pieces to really up your cocktail-making game, Jonathan Adler has a stylish array of trolleys, trays and ice buckets. As stated, good ice can make or break or a cocktail, so keep it chilled in something really cool, such as Jonathan Adler’s Berlin ice bucket (£375).

Berlin ice bucket from Jonathan Adler

What is attractive about so much cocktail-making kit is its vintage feel so why not embrace that fully? Mark Goodger specialises in such antique pieces, including original Art Deco cocktail shakers. Although delicate, Mark Goodger says they can still be enjoyed as intended: “Some pieces are more delicate than others so care must be taken but it is absolutely worth the effort. The timeless charm of cocktails is mirrored in the vintage allure of shakers and decanters—a poetic dance between classic mixology and the chic sophistication of an era long cherished,” he says.

Aeroplane Cocktail Shaker by J. A. Henckels from Mark Goodger

Enjoying cocktails the easy way

We’re all about the easy life and Claridge’s – as well as selling beautiful shakers and glassware – sells bottles of some of its favourite cocktails, ready mixed. These include its famous negroni. Cheers to that we say.

• You’ll find a list of The Field’s cocktail recipes here.

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This article was originally published in 2023 and has been updated. All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more  https://www.futureplc.com/terms-conditions/

What is it about Jack Russells that the true countryman and woman cannot resist? After all, they can be about as obedient as an angry iguana, are capable of taking on armies of rats with unrestrained glee and think nothing of seeing off dogs seven times their size. But they retain a loyal following among those who lead the truly rural life, even when they temporarily find themselves in town. There is a side of their nature that is unfailingly fetching, whatever crime has been committed, and they possess a seductive, if roguish, charm that invites unconditional love.

These diminutive terriers have devoted fans in all corners of the country

In recent years it seems that other breeds have come to the fore of fashion. The word ‘poo’ is found in six of the top 10 crossbreeds, and not in a scatological sense but because they are part poodle. Indeed, the cockapoo is now the most popular dog breed in Britain according to the Royal Veterinary College. But, as befits their character, Jack Russells are staging a fightback: the Royal Kennel Club states that they have ‘experienced a boom in popularity in recent years’ and there was a 75% surge in puppy registrations in 2025 compared with 2024. Reserve Best in Show at Crufts in 2024. The breed is still to be seen in force at horse trials – Olympic medallists Mark Todd and Pippa Funnell can commonly be found with one trotting by their sides – but the recent rise has been partly prompted by Zen, the adorable tail-wagging rough-coated Jack Russell from Japan who was sparking enthusiasm among the Tik- Tok generation; the rest is down to Royal patronage and even presidential blessing.

HM The King as Prince of Wales with his beloved Tigga

Colourful characters

HM Queen Camilla adopted two Jack Russells, Beth and Bluebell, from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in 2011 and 2012 respectively. In a foreword for Top Dogs: A British Love Affair she admitted: ‘They are both colourful characters – and now I cannot imagine my life, my home or my sofas without them.’ They even appeared on the frontispiece page of Country Life magazine wearing pearls. If confirmation were needed of h-er commitment to the breed, a pair of Jack Russells were beautifully embroidered into the gown that she wore for HM The King’s Coronation.

Beth and Bluebell would accompany Her Majesty on official visits, and Beth proved adept at unveiling plaques with her teeth. Sadly Beth died at the end of 2024 but a new companion soon reported for duty at Clarence House in the form of Moley, another rescue dog. The King has long favoured these terriers; when he was Prince of Wales he was devoted to Tigga, who lived to the grand age of 18.

Another Jack Russell to earn the plaudits of a head of state is Patron, who was given an award by President Zelensky of Ukraine in 2022 for sniffing out more than 200 mines. Patron became something of a national hero after the President called him a “wonderful little sapper”, adding that he “helps not only to neutralise explosives but also to teach our children the necessary safety rules in areas where there is a mine threat”. The derring-do and bravery of these diminutive bundles of energy are well documented. Which is the only dog to have travelled to both the North and South Poles? You’ve guessed it: in Bothie, Sir Ranulph Fiennes picked the right kind of dog to achieve such a feat.

So where did Jack Russells come from? Terriers have been in existence for centuries but the man who gave his name to the eponymous ones we recognise as Jack Russells today, the Revd John Russell, was an undergraduate at Oxford in the early 19th century when he had a Damascene moment while strolling in the Magdalen College gardens. The Revd EWL Davies, who became Russell’s curate and biographer, wrote that his hunting-mad subject ‘halted as Actaeon might have done when he caught sight of Diana disporting in her bath; but unlike that ill-fated hunter, he never budged… til he had won the prize and secured it for his own’. That prize in question was the milkman’s terrier, named Trump, who was the first in a long line.

The writer has shared his life with many Jack Russells, including Scandal shown above, whose portraits were painted in oils by Nicky Philipps

Endurance and focus

Russell intended the dogs to be used specifically for foxhunting by going into foxes’ earths and flushing them out as well as running with hounds. These longer-legged terriers evolved into the Parson Russell terrier, while the Jack Russell we know today is generally smaller, with a longer back and shorter, sturdier legs. They are mostly white (easier to spot in the field) with tan, black or tricolour markings. Whereas many terriers were bred as general pest hunters, the Jack Russell was specifically developed for foxhunting and digging, which gave them immense endurance and focus.

His breeding programme has remained a secret, like the recipe for Coca-Cola or the location of Atlantis, but mainly because the Revd John Russell couldn’t quite remember who he had crossed with whom. The resulting alchemy, however, has endured and is part of the magic. Many owners were thus horrified when the breed was recognised by the Kennel Club a decade ago. Approval by the powers that be was not good for the reputation of this maverick outsider who thrived on being unregulated.

This is something I could understand. I have enjoyed the company of these endearing creatures for more than 50 years. Scandal came to me when I was 16 years old. The smooth-haired bitch (whose sister Rumour belonged to my sister) enjoyed a peripatetic lifestyle as I first went to university in rural Devon (I was meant to be at Exeter but lived in a remote farmhouse) and then into the Household Cavalry. I once lost her in Kensington Gardens and an all-day search proved fruitless. I returned to my flat that evening to find her tied to the letter box with a message from a shop owner who had found her in the middle of Knightsbridge tired after a satisfactory morning chasing squirrels.

Scandal even made the Daily Mail when nearly crushed by a table at a book launch for a Jilly Cooper novel. She would come on stable inspections and was known all around the barracks. If I had to go away various friends would look after her and one, Nicky Philipps, the renowned portraitist whose works include the late Queen and HRH The Prince of Wales, also painted Scandal’s portrait in oils – a piece I count among my proudest possessions. Supremely adaptable, she was my constant, loyal and loving companion, and luckily she approved of the girl I married. They didn’t all pass the Scandal test.

The next Jack Russell to come into my life arrived as a wedding present from my father; Shufti was the daughter of his Jack Russell, Libel, and grew up with our children. She tolerated her ears being pulled and having small children curl up on her bean bag with her. Yes, she did savage the Pony Club district commissioner’s dog in public but she had an aversion to white fluffy dogs on leads who seemed to have no purpose in life. When Shufti died we were joined by Benjie. The strange thing about Benjie is that he didn’t belong to us but adopted us because his owners were often away and he travelled over several fields to spend the day with us. We never let him in or fed him – that would have been crossing the line – but he’d sometimes sleep on the doorstep and often came for rides or followed us round the farm feeding the animals. He became part of the family over several summers (he was sent to Ireland in the winters) and we were inconsolable when he was eventually exiled to South America.

Haggis is well known to the film crew for the latest Jilly Cooper television series Rivals, much of which was filmed at his home in Neston Park in Wiltshire. He is the 12-year-old rough-coated Jack Russell given to Sir James and Lady Fuller by John Hall, the current president of Bath Rugby Club, and his wife Kirsty. “He is a lover not a fighter,” says Lady Fuller. “Unless he’s ratting. Then he completely changes.” Rivals was not an acting one-off for Haggis, who also found himself in Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero and stole a pig’s trotter in Poldark. He also attends each (pheasant) shooting day and, while he has been known to start devouring a pheasant mid-drive, he can generally be relied on to bring it back to the peg.

Jack Russells have experienced a boom in popularity in recent years

King of the shooting field

Daphne Hanbury has been rated by this magazine as one of the best shots in the country and she says that her Jack Russell, Frank, also enjoys his sport almost more than anything. He is an outstanding retriever and will pick up enough to make her husband Nigel proud and then retains one or two for burial, which he is allowed to consume later. She believes that it is better to allow Jack Russells to indulge their natural instincts. “The theory is that while all my friends are stressed about their dogs’ manners, we can honestly say that Jacks are untrainable. But Frank is full of joy. He is happy all the time. You can never be sad when he is in the room. Now that he has become a father he sees himself as a gladiator, womaniser and king of the shooting field… for the latter I just have to remember to take a lead.”

Charles Homan, former Master of the Chiddingfold, Leconfield & Cowdray, has surrendered his house to Radish, Ternip (sic), Roobarb and Rocket. Although Radish is capable of jumping high fences to chase cats out of the garden, she really likes curling up in front of the Rayburn. Ternip is a dab hand at moving cattle from field to field. Roobarb spends much of her life in local pubs with daughter Charlotte, and Rocket is a regular in officers’ messes with Army officer son William, winning the best dog prize at RAF Lyneham. William credits the latter with great intelligence and mischief “while appearing completely innocent”.

There is no doubt that Jack Russells have their fans in all corners of the country and Queen Camilla only reflects what most owners feel. Once you have had a Jack Russell your life will never be the same.

This article featured in the June 2026 edition of The Field. Isn’t it time to subscribe?

Cocktails

Greet your guests with a cocktail. How about a Pimmgroni? Less sweet than Pimm’s but longer and more refreshing than a negroni, this fruity, bittersweet summer drink is the perfect way to get the party started.

Pimmgroni

Nibbles

Spicy devilled egg dip

What about a pre-party nibble? Try this spicy devilled egg dip recipe which is also perfect for picnics.

This dip goes perfectly with my anchovy and cheese straws which are crisp, buttery and with a sophisticated hit of anchovy. They make a great pre-party nibble and pair particularly well with a chilled glass of English fizz. Makes 16 straws.

Anchovy And Cheese Straws by Philippa Davis

Starters

This chopped venison heart with chilli salad is the perfect offering for those who like it hot.

This chopped venison heart with chilli salad can be slow cooked or flash fried.

Alternatively, if you’d like a fishy starter then make this bass ceviche, a light and zesty starter with a subtle kick.

Zesty bass ceviche is a great starter if you have guests coming for supper.

Want to serve game and get some of the preparation done ahead of your party? Crispy pretzel parmesan partridge is ideal for this. You can prep the partridge and make the sauce up to a day before it is needed and finish off/reheat just before serving.

Crispy pretzel partridge

Main courses for summer

Where would we be without a barbecue dish? Get game on the barbecue this summer with Lebanese grilled venison koftas with tabbouleh salad.

For something a little different, try venison on the BBQ.

Burgers are always a favourite and this venison burger recipe is sure to please and leave your guests wanting more.

The perfect venison burger

Eating al fresco

We don’t get the opportunity to eat outside as much as we would like in the United Kingdom, so let’s make the most of it when we can. Here are some recipes to make eating under the sky even more special.

Sliced roast venison with caper sauce

Sliced roast venison with caper sauce. This venison dish may seem decadent for a picnic but it’s quick and simple to make and always a crowd-pleaser.

Sticky Pimm’s-glazed pheasant

At my house, Pimm’s equals summer. For this recipe I have used its classic sweet, fruity and slightly bitter flavours to make a delicious glazed pheasant summer salad. Sticky Pimm’s-glazed pheasant with cucumber, mint and strawberry salad.

Pheasant salad with kefir ranch dressing

Looking for a salad recipe? Try my pheasant salad with kefir ranch dressing recipe. The perfect way to use up leftover pheasant from the freezer.

Eton mess ice cream

And something sweet

Here’s my take on Eton mess. A recipe for Eton mess ice cream.

Trifle opera cake jars with amaretto

You can make an al fresco feast an occasion and finish it in style with these trifle opera cake jars with amaretto.

Dust off your coconut rum for this super summer pud, barbecue piña colada

For the perfect final flourish to your summer barbecue, raid the drinks cabinet for that forgotton bottle of coconut rum and make this barbecue piña colada.

Our monthly The Field to Fork newsletter brings together the best of The Field’s food and drink writing. Sign up here.

Eton mess ice cream

Ingredients

Ice cream base

• 1 vanilla pod
• 600ml double cream
• 300ml whole milk
• 5 medium free-range egg yolks
• 100g caster sugar

Strawberry swirl

• 200g strawberries
• 50ml elderflower cordial
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 40g caster sugar
• 25ml gin or vodka
• 5 meringue nests

Strawberry swirl

1. Hull the strawberries and roughly chop.
2. Place in a small bowl and mix in the cordial, lemon juice, caster sugar and gin.
3. Stir and leave somewhere cool for 1 hour.
4. Blitz in a food processor until smooth.

Ice cream base

1. Split the vanilla pod in half, scrape out the seeds and place both in a mediumsized heavy-based pan along with the cream and milk. Bring to a simmer.
2. Whisk together the yolks and caster sugar until pale and thickened.
3. Once the cream has come to the boil, take off the heat and immediately whisk 1/3 into the yolks then pour everything back into the pan (still off the heat) and whisk well.
4. Sieve into a clean bowl and leave to cool.
5. Freeze for 4-6 hours then slice into large cubes and blitz in a food processor.
6. Crumble in the meringues and add the strawberry purée, stirring once to keep the swirl. Return to the freezer for another 4 hours or until solid.

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Kefir is a fermented milk drink similar to a thin yoghurt that is usually now drunk plain or flavoured with fruit. I especially enjoy the Original Kefir made by the Dorset Dairy Co as it has a great balance of creamy milk and tangy ferment. For the blue cheese in this salad I love using Stichelton, the only traditional raw-milk version of Stilton in the world, made in Nottinghamshire, or Yorkshire Blue produced by Shepherds Purse.

Pheasant salad with kefir ranch dressing recipe

Method

Kefir ranch dressing

• 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and finely grated
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise
• 100ml kefir
• 2 heaped tbsp dill, finely chopped
• 1 heaped tbsp parsley, finely chopped
• A splash of Worcestershire sauce

Salad

• 2 pheasant breasts, thick part butterflied open to create a thin, even piece
• 1½ tbsp rapeseed oil
• 4 rashers smoked streaky bacon
• 100g cucumber, chopped into bitesized pieces
• 4 small spring onions, finely sliced
• 100g cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 100g radish, sliced into quarters
• 100g blue cheese
• A large handful of rocket leaves

Kefir ranch dressing

1. In a small mixing bowl whisk together the garlic, lemon juice and mayonnaise with a little salt and pepper.
2. Mix in the kefir then add the dill, parsley and Worcestershire sauce. Leave to one side.

Salad

1. Season the pheasant breasts with salt and pepper and rub with 1 tablespoon of oil.
2. In a frying pan on a medium heat brown the breasts on both sides in the remaining oil. Reduce the heat and fry for a couple more minutes until just cooked through then remove to a plate. Allow to cool before chopping into bite-sized pieces.
3. Return the pan to the stove and turn the heat back up to medium. Fry the bacon on both sides until crispy then remove, leave to cool then chop into 2cm pieces.
4. Place the pheasant and bacon in a mixing bowl and add the cucumber, spring onion, cherry tomatoes and radish. Pour over the dressing and toss well.
5. Crumble in the blue cheese and add the rocket. Give it one final toss then serve.

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Sliced roast venison with herb, caper and mustard sauce

Marinade

• 1 large clove of garlic, peeled and grated
• 1 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped
• ½ lemon, juice and zest (removed in strips)
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil plus 2 tbsp to cook
• 800g venison fillet or boned haunch steaks

Herb, caper and mustard sauce

• 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and grated
• 50g parsley, finely chopped
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp capers, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp hot horseradish
• ½ lemon, juice only
• 80ml cold-pressed rapeseed oil

Watercress and shallot salad

• 1 large bunch of washed watercress
• 100g peeled shallots, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Marinade and venison

1. In a bowl mix together the marinade ingredients with a little salt and pepper.
2. Place the venison in a tightly fitting dish, rub with the marinade then cover and chill in the fridge for 2-6 hours.
3. When ready to cook, place a large frying pan on a medium to high heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil then sear the venison on all sides until brown.
4. Once cooked remove from the heat, place in a dish and loosely cover with foil. Leave to cool then thinly slice.

Herb, caper and mustard sauce

Place the sauce ingredients in a mixing bowl, season then stir well.

Watercress and shallot salad

In a bowl, season the shallots and add the vinegar. Stir well and leave for at least 10 minutes.

To serve

1. Pile the watercress on your serving platter and lay the sliced venison on top.
2. Spoon over the caper sauce then strain the shallots, discarding any excess juice, before scattering over.

Note: If taking on a picnic you can cook and slice the venison, make the sauce and season the shallots all the night before, then assemble when there.

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To me venison is the champion of all meats: rich in protein and key nutrients. Here I’ve used it in an epic burger.

Venison burger

Burger

• 600g venison mince
• 300g pork sausage meat
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 30g parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp fine sea salt (2 tbsp oil for cooking)

Béarnaise mayo

• 1 tsp white cider vinegar
• 1 small shallot, peeled and finely diced
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 4 tbsp mayonnaise
• 10g tarragon leaves, finely chopped

Five-ring salad dressing

• 1 large clove garlic, peeled and crushed with a little salt
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp raspberry vinegar
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 10g parsley, chopped
• 10g basil, chopped

Five-ring salad

• 1 aubergine, sliced into ¾cm-thick rounds
• 1 green courgette, cut into ¾cm-thick rounds
• 1 yellow pepper, cut into ¾cm-thick rounds and any seeds removed
• 2 medium red tomatoes, cut into ¾cm-thick rounds
• 8 blue pansies or 1 tbsp edible blue flowers – cornflowers, for example

To serve

• 6 brioche buns
• A handful of lettuce

Method

Burger

• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a few twists of freshly ground black pepper.
• Fry off a small test patty to check the seasoning. Form the rest into six burgers.

Béarnaise mayonnaise

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, cover and keep cool.

Five-ring salad dressing

In a large bowl add a pinch of seasoning then whisk together the garlic, lemon juice and vinegar. Mix in the oil and the herbs.

Five-ring salad

• Using a griddle pan or barbecue, grill the aubergines, courgettes and peppers both sides on a medium heat until lightly charred and slightly softened.
• Add straight into the dressing and toss.
• Mix in the tomatoes just before serving and check the seasoning. Serve with the pansies on top.

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Pimmgroni

Pimmgroni base

• 100ml gin
• 100ml red vermouth
• 50ml cointreau
• 50ml sweet sherry
• 50ml Campari

To serve

• 4 strawberries, cut into four thick slices
• 4 sprigs of mint
• 4 thin, round slices of lemon, cut in half
• 8 round slices of cucumber
• 400ml ginger ale

Pimmgroni base

In a jug mix the gin, red vermouth, cointreau, sweet sherry and Campari. This can now be kept in a bottle and stored in a cool, dark place until ready to use.

To serve

1. About 10 minutes before serving, pour the base mix into a jug and add the strawberries, mint, lemon and cucumber.
2. Leave to sit for 10 minutes then top with the ginger ale and give it one gentle stir.
3. Serve with a straw in tall glasses filled with ice.

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When the late Henry Thynne, 6th Marquess of Bath, was having difficulty conceiving a child with his second wife Virginia in the 1950s, the couple made their way south from their Wiltshire estate at Longleat to the Dorset village of Cerne Abbas. There on the hillside stands the 180-foot chalk carving of the Cerne Abbas Giant: famously well endowed and steeped in folklore that it can cure infertility.

“We were very much in the dark about what he could do,” Lord Bath told a reporter some years later. “I explained the problem and sat on him.” Ten months later a daughter, Silvy Cerne Thynne, arrived. The named godfather listed at the christening? G Cerne. It has not, however, always been treated with such reverence. Growing up at her family home, Minterne House, the daughter of the 11th Lord Digby, Pamela Digby, who later became the US ambassador to France, is said to have shrieked “God, it’s big!” as she jumped the phallus on her pony.

The Cerne Abbas giant in Dorset

Dorset’s unapologetically explicit landmark is best seen from above but can also be surveyed from a lay-by on the road connecting Sherborne and Dorchester. And as you weave your way through the West Country’s rolling chalk downs, the giant does not stand in splendid isolation: eight visible horses grace Wiltshire’s hillsides alone; there’s the spectacle of military badges between the hilltop town of Shaftesbury and nearby Salisbury; and a solitary kiwi can be spotted at Bulford where Wiltshire makes way for Hampshire. Further afield there’s the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex, the Kilburn White Horse in North Yorkshire and the Whipsnade White Lion in Bedfordshire.

“They are easily lost unless they’re regularly kept from growing over, so we don’t know how many there might have been in total,” says archaeologist Martin Papworth, formerly at the National Trust, has several of the carvings in its care. “There are rumours and stories of others but there’s no definitive list and they all range in date, created at different times for different reasons. I suppose anybody with a chalk hillside who wanted to cut the turf and scour the chalk could have done so.”

If each carving is awash with speculation, superstition and intrigue as to their true origin and motive, they’re united in their stop-you-in-your-tracks appeal: mystical creatures that appear on the horizon as you round a bend. “They inspire people’s imagination,” believes Papworth. “People look at them on the hillside and the reason they were carved almost gets forgotten as people make up stories around them. They like the mystery.”

Regimental badges carved into a chalk hill, Fovant Down, in Wiltshire

Surprising results

A week before lockdown in the spring of 2020, Papworth led a team undertaking an excavation of the Cerne Giant’s feet and elbows that would debunk the assumptions surrounding the carving’s long-debated origins. “The results were a great surprise,” admits Papworth, who had thought a 17th-century genesis was most likely, with the 1694 churchwarden’s account of repairs the earliest known record and suggestions that it could have been an unflattering portrayal of Oliver Cromwell. Others had thought he was prehistoric. What they hadn’t expected was that the results of the hi-tech, optically stimulated luminescence testing (which dates sediment based on when it was last exposed to sunlight) would give the clubwielding giant late-Saxon origins.

The revelation has given a new view to its purpose, says Papworth, linking it to the nearby Cerne Abbey as a potential signpost for pilgrims. Founded in 987AD, the Abbey was in the 18th century believed to have been set up to convert locals from worshipping an early Anglo-Saxon god known as ‘Heil’, with the giant a possible depiction of him, though Dorset was largely Christian by then. And as for the phallic addition, Papworth points to a faint line joining the giant’s belt up, which would suggest it was which added as late as the 17th century by a daring landlord – perhaps the flamboyant Lord Holles, who owned the land in the mid-17th century, or the Dorset politician Thomas Freke, who might have been a likely culprit to have “doctored him”, says Papworth.

The Kilburn White Horse
in North Yorkshire

Myths and legend

The dating work on the Cerne Giant came about because of the successful use of the same technique on the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire in the 1990s, which gave it Bronze Age origins. Longer than a football pitch, it’s the oldest of all the white horses with its striking stylised design (akin to a Matisse masterpiece) and though its ancient roots are more certain now, its purpose is still open for discussion. Positioned on the Ridgeway, which connects notable Bronze Age hill forts and burial mounds, the site has been viewed by archaeologists as a prehistoric tribe’s effort to stake their land rights but this hasn’t muted the storybookworthy legends that abound.

There’s the horse goddess Rhiannon mooted to have inspired it; or perhaps Belinos, the sun god sometimes depicted on horseback. Then there’s the local myth that it gallops across the sky to see a farrier every 100 years or the discourse that it’s not a horse at all but the dragon killed by St George on Dragon Hill across from it. Its prominent position, which the surrounding Vale of the White Horse (and subsequently the VWH Hunt) is named after, means it’s a tempting target for stunts. Before the Cheltenham Festival in 2012, using night-vision goggles, a bookmaker added a giant jockey to the ancient hill carving.

Some 150 miles east on the steep slopes of Windover Hill in East Sussex, the Long Man of Wilmington is a popular pagan site of worship. He has been subject to a fair share of eyebrow-raising additions as well: there’ve been pigtails, hips and breasts in an apparent sex change in 2007; a phallus to rival the Cerne Giant’s in 2010; and most recently a COVID-19 mask. This is another site to have undergone optically stimulated luminescence testing, which in 2003 dated it to the early modern period (the 16th or 17th century) rather than the Romano-British figure or Anglo-Saxon warrior that had been assumed. Its role still baffles archaeologists but it continues to be seen as a symbol of fertility today, with druids and wiccans coming to worship and Morris dancers congregating below its feet at dawn on May Day.

Other chalk carvings are unexpectedly recent additions to our landscape, with the work of George Stubbs said to have inspired the increasingly realistic depictions of horses by the mid-18th century. Three miles to the south-west of the Long Man of Wilmington is the Litlington White Horse. This was cut in the 1830s (possibly to celebrate Queen Victoria’s impending coronation or simply to amuse locals) and carved again in 1924, after it had succumbed to weeds, during the course of one night under moonlight by a group of friends – including the son of one of the original creators.

Lying just below an Iron Age hill fort, the oldest of Wiltshire’s white horses is the 180-foot-tall horse at Westbury. This was first created in the late 17th century, most probably to commemorate King Alfred’s victory in the Battle of Edington, which was meant to have happened at Bratton Camp in 878AD. It was last scoured in 1853, and is now concreted over and painted white. The Osmington White Horse was cut at the beginning of the 19th century in the hills above Weymouth and depicted George III, who regularly visited the town, astride his charger Adonis. But legend says that its direction of travel (leaving Weymouth) offended the King, who never returned. Less shrouded in mystery, but even more recent, are the Fovant Badges dotted along the chalk hillside in south-west Wiltshire, each depicting regimental cap badges. At the outbreak of World War One, the village of Fovant became a training and transit camp for tens of thousands of troops preparing to leave for, and returning from, the battlefields of northern France. And in memory of their fellow soldiers who didn’t return from the Western Front, their regimental badges were proudly carved into the hillside. The first of which was that of the London Rifle Brigade, followed by others from British and Commonwealth units who passed through the camp.

Over the course of the 1920s the badges became overgrown, and during World War Two they were covered up entirely so they couldn’t be used as landmarks by enemy aircraft (other chalk carvings were deliberately painted green during the war to camouflage them), and it was only after the war that the task of restoration began. In 1950-51 the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry and the Wiltshire Regiment had their badges built by the former Fovant Home Guard troop, and the Royal Signals badge was added in 1970.

On the centenary of the first badge being carved in 1916, an 80-foot poppy was added by volunteers to the eight remaining badges, painstakingly removing the turf and top-soil and filling it with chalk. As Richard Bullard from the Fovant Badges Society said, catching a glimpse of the badges makes you think of the young men going to France wanting to make their mark: “a message to the future from the past”.

Battling animal grazing, creeping overgrowth and subsidence to keep our chalk carvings alive has always relied on willing volunteers. Scouts can be seen abseiling down the Cherhill White Horse outside Calne, weeding as they go; students at Marlborough College have been roped in to clean their local white horse; while ahead of the London Olympics residents in the village of Osmington set about a two-year restoration project to smarten up their bedraggled horse before it was in the spotlight for the Olympic sailing at Weymouth. On ‘chalking day’ at the Uffington White Horse, knee pads, buckets of chalk and hammers are dispensed for the annual cleaning ritual – with those allocated the eye taking the opportunity to make a wish on it.

Yearning for mystery

This primal quest to make our mark in the land that began at least 3,000 years ago shows no signs of abating: in January 1969 residents in Laverstock near Salisbury woke to find the 55-foot face of a panda carved in the chalk hillside staring back at them (a prank devised in a student union bar); in 1999 the most recent of the Wiltshire white horses was carved near Devizes to celebrate the millennium; and in 2003 a carving of a horse designed by artist Charlie Newington and inspired by the Uffington White Horse was finished outside Folkestone on the Kent Downs. And as archaeologists and historians strive to unearth each of their true origins and purpose – whether they were statements of political and religious protest, commemorations or just attentiongrabbing follies – they come up against a resounding yearning for these hillside creatures to retain some of their secrets: an enchanting air of mystery in a modern world of predictability.

The Cotswolds’ Slad Valley is famous as the idyllic setting for Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie but increasingly the area is associated with another beloved author: Dame Jilly Cooper. (Read The Field’s interview with Dame Jilly Cooper here.)

I grew up there, in the village of Bisley but, as a youngster, little did I know that Bisley and its surroundings were providing inspiration in real time for ‘Rutshire’. The fabled county is known to the millions who have devoured Cooper’s books since the 1980s, and now decades later with the hit television series Rivals. Cooper was a fellow resident and family friend who lived at the other side of the village from us at The Chantry, a gorgeous Above: Tetbury in Gloucestershire served as the primary filming location for the fictional town of Cotchester in Rivals 14th-century honey-stoned house filled with books and dogs.

Bisley is still a chocolate-box village near what was then the unfashionable side of Gloucestershire, close to the industrial valleys of Stroud. The wonderful thing about it was that there were never any tourists, and in the late 1980s there was a thriving high street consisting of two pubs – the Bear Inn and the Stirrup Cup – a restaurant and several shops. The Stirrup Cup was affectionately known as the ‘Stomach Pump’ owing to the huge quantities of alcohol that were consumed on the premises.

Tetbury in Gloucestershire served as the primary filming location for the fictional town of Cotchester in Rivals

My father, Simon, Marquess of Reading, was a keen member of the Cotswold and would regularly be seen hacking through the village on his 18hh horse, Domino. Recently, we found a photo of us all riding down Bisley High Street. It featured in the Stroud News & Journal. Our ‘hack’ was an attempt to protest and sway the incoming traffic from the new development at Bussage. Cooper and my mother appeared in another article in the early 1990s, as they were both up in arms about the building of thousands of houses and were promptly described as ‘Nimbies’. But, as the second series of Rivals hits our screens, how has being in the spotlight impacted this sleepy corner of the Cotswolds?

Author Laurie Lee in Slad village with The Woolpack in the background (1994)

Honest and untouched

Craig Fuller is a property search agent and believes it hasn’t changed much since the 1980s. “What’s great about Bisley is that it’s a secret haven and incredibly quiet. It’s located in a hidden paradise, on the edge of the Toadsmoor Valley. It feels rather frozen in time, and its narrow lanes are far less welcoming to Range Rovers than some other parts of the Cotswolds,” he says. “It is very much what people dream about. There is no Soho House or Estelle Manor vibe – just true Cotswolds countryside. “You won’t find people doing endless TikTok videos there. It is real, beautiful, quiet and honest,” Fuller continues. “Jilly Cooper’s house is a wonder, and it is clear why the southern Cotswolds and the Stroud valleys tend to attract creatives rather than those from banking and finance. There are a number of actors, artists, writers and musicians who lean this way because of the untouched countryside, which feels true to itself and free from the glamour found in some sections of the northern Cotswolds.”

Tetbury’s Chavenage House doubles as Declan O’Hara’s ‘The Priory’

Stepping back in time

The eagle-eyed will recognise Chavenage House, an Elizabethan manor house near Tetbury, as the location of Rivals’ Declan O’Hara’s ‘The Priory’. In real life it is home to Caroline Lowsley-Williams. She was overjoyed to see it appear in Disney’s Rutshire. “Having Rivals filming at Chavenage was a bit like stepping back in time to my youth. My own 21st party at Chavenage was in the mid-1980s, so seeing the house set for the New Year’s Eve party and the cast dressed just as my friends were brought it all back,” she says.

“One of the first questions the production team asked me was what my views were on sex. My answer was ‘Who with?’ I didn’t realise that in fact they were trying to ascertain if we would be happy to have some scenes of a sexual nature filmed here at Chavenage,” Lowsley-Williams reveals. “I, of course, had read the Jilly Cooper novels back in the day and knew that she enjoyed having plenty of ‘rom’ in her romcoms, though I could not remember the threesomes and foursomes.” According to Lowsley-Williams, the next question was whether she was prepared to have a camel in the house. “I was on a roll by then and said no problem at all as long as it had its own toiletry assistant (a girl with a bucket) following at all times.”

Like other locals involved, one of the highlights of the experience was having Jilly Cooper come to the filming. “It was a real pleasure having Jilly. She was thrilled to see her words come to life. She said that Chavenage was just perfect for The Priory and she remembered coming to parties such as the Cirencester Park Polo Ball,” says Lowsley-Williams.

Dame Jilly Cooper in the garden of The Chantry

Tetbury, also known as ‘Cotchester’ in Cooper’s novels, is a quiet south Cotswolds market town located close to Chavenage House. As children, my sister Natasha and I would drive through Tetbury every morning on the way to our school, Westonbirt. To a nonplussed teenager Tetbury was a fairly unremarkable place filled with shops selling bunting and mugs, pubs with smelly red carpets, and lots of antique shops. However, today, it has been sprinkled with the ‘Jilly magic’ and is now firmly awash with holiday lets and cafes: a far cry from how I remember it in the late 1990s.

Polo-playing character Ricky France- Lynch lived on a crumbling estate in Rutshire where he played on the ‘royal polo fields’. These undoubtedly point to Cirencester Park Polo Club. Custodian The Countess Bathurst points out that Cirencester is the oldest polo club in England. “Jilly would join us at the club for high days and holidays, and dispense advice to the young in a kind way,” she muses, adding: “When Jilly spoke to you, you had the feeling that you were the only person in the room.”

Writer Esther Coren notes that The Retreat wine bar in Cheltenham was ‘a dead ringer for Bar Sinister… Basil Baddingham’s pet project’. The bar is owned by Mike and Lella Dey. “We migrated from London to the Cotswolds in 1982 (the same year that Jilly and Leo did) and launched The Retreat in the decade of Riders and Rivals,” says Mike Dey, who admits he’s been told numerous times that his wine bar and its late-night fun reminds people of the fictional Bar Sinister: “Jilly Cooper novels and our wine bar epitomised the 1980s: racy, wild times in a booming era where excess and success thrived.”

Regency Cheltenham had some excellent shops in the late 1980s, such as boutique Alison Harrison where the ladies who lunch could buy a silk suit with shoulder pads and promptly collapse at The Retreat after a hard day’s shopping with a Kir royale or two. Coren also is of the opinion (one that I share) that many of Cooper’s characters would have loved the Daylesford Organic farm shop and connecting restaurant, The Trough, in Kingham. We imagine that they’d probably start the day with a juice at The Orchard Bar, work out at The Club by Bamford and even rent a Cotswold stone cottage in Daylesford Village for the weekend.

Dinner parties and pubs

However, Cooper’s own pleasures were less complicated. Roly Luard, my aunt and a close friend of Jilly’s, says: “She seemed happiest at home, and she always loved the summer months sitting outside in her garden overlooking the Cotswold valley. There was a constant stream of village friends who would pop in for a glass of champagne.” Cooper’s well-known supper parties were often catered by William’s, an up-and-coming caterer in Nailsworth. “Jilly and Leo threw a great party, whether it was a big celebration in a marquee or a cosy kitchen supper, always with her adoring dogs by her side,” Luard recalls.

Today, Anne Rainy-Brown of Really Good Food caters for the great and the good of the area, but she also provided the food for the Coopers’ ruby wedding anniversary and their daughter’s wedding. “I recall at one dinner party in Bisley, where there was royalty in attendance, I put a chocolate torte in the freezer only to find two frozen dead kittens wrapped in plastic bags,” she reveals. “I screamed and asked the housekeeper what was going on. She calmly replied that the chatelaine had put the dead kittens in there as it was too cold outside. Apparently the gardener would bury them when the ground had thawed. I was gobsmacked.”

Dinner parties going wrong feature often and famously in Cooper’s work: think the one at Green Hedges in Rivals when Rupert Campbell-Black pinches Taggie’s bottom and the moated ice-cream castle ends up in Cameron’s Armani-clad lap. Perhaps she drew inspiration from all the Bisley garden and dinner parties? Another location for such goings on is Slad Valley pub The Woolpack near Stroud. This appears in Cooper’s books, including as a meeting place for Declan O’Hara and Cameron Cook to prop up the bar. After a recent trip back to my Cotswold homeland I can report that, thank goodness, The Woolpack is just as we left it in the 1990s and continues to be frequented by locals who are still dutifully propping up the bar and were there long before the Jilly Cooper era.

Actor Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell-Black in the hit TV show Rivals

Lord Frederick Windsor, who was my childhood neighbour and grew up at Nether Lypiatt Manor nearby, remembers a local myth: “Apparently the Stroud Subscription Rooms was the only British venue where The Beatles played to fewer people on their second visit than on their first.” Jilly Cooper would have loved this sort of story where pop culture was lost on the locals. Dan Chadwick, a local sculptor who owns The Woolpack and the Juliet restaurant in Stroud where Cooper visited last year, has plenty of stories. “Jilly and Leo once had a party and we all went along and behaved very badly. Jilly was good-humoured about it and loved a bit of naughtiness. She told me that our house at the head of the Toadsmoor Valley was the inspiration for the home of Rupert Campbell-Black.

“We met at local drinks parties and also at Heather’s antique shop on Bisley High Street,” he adds. “We drank a lot of wine in the antiques shop, and for a while in the late 1980s and early 1990s it seemed the whole of Bisley were having affairs with each other – it was a subject of great delight for all of us. The full character list of her books were all around us and still are to some extent. Things have changed a bit but really it is still the same.”

Recipe for pork chops with rhubarb, honey, rosemary and butter

Ingredients

Rhubarb

• 300g rhubarb, cut into 2cm lengths
• 50g granulated sugar
• 2 sprigs of rosemary

Pork

• 2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
• 4 pork chops
• 4 small sprigs of rosemary
• 100g salted butter, cubed
• 2 tbsp British honey
• 80g watercress

Method

Rhubarb

Put the rhubarb, sugar and rosemary into a frying pan over a medium-low heat. Cook, giving the pan the occasional shake, until the rhubarb is just tender. Add a splash of water if needed.

Pork

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Season the pork chops and add them to the pan with the rosemary.
2. Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, depending on thickness, until golden and cooked through. Turn off the heat, add the butter and honey, and shimmy the pan until you have a glossy sauce.
3. Check the seasoning, then add the rhubarb to warm through. Serve with the watercress and spoon over the pan juices.

Recipe for ale-braised beef brisket with crushed potatoes

Ingredients

Beef

• 1kg rolled beef brisket, featherblade or chuck
• 2 tbsp oil
• 200g peeled shallots, halved lengthways
• 4 large carrots, peeled and halved
• 4 medium garlic cloves, peeled
• 4 bay leaves
• 4 sprigs of thyme
• 400-500ml ale

Potatoes

• 600g waxy potatoes, such as Jersey Royals, scrubbed but left whole
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

Method

Beef

1. Heat the oven to 150°C fan/Gas Mark 3. In a lidded casserole, season and brown the beef in the oil on all sides then remove to a plate. Add the shallots, carrots, garlic, bay and thyme to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes. Return the beef, pour in 400ml ale and season again.
2. Cover with a cartouche and lid and cook in the oven for 4-5 hours until tender, turning the beef halfway and adding more ale if needed. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before slicing thickly and serving.

Potatoes

1. Put the potatoes into a pan of cold salted water, bring to the boil and cook until just tender. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, soak the chopped shallot in the vinegar for 5 minutes, then whisk in the mustard, olive oil and parsley. Season well.
2. Drain the potatoes and leave them to steam for a couple of minutes, then lightly crush them with a fork. Toss them in the dressing and serve warm or at room temperature.

This remote coastal paradise is the ultimate bolthole

Carswell Beach Hut, Holbeton, South Devon

Stay at the picturesque Carswell Beach Hut, where waves lap the shore of your own private cove and the tang of woodsmoke from the flame-heated hot tub floats on the sea breeze. This is a place to truly get away from it all: there is neither wi-fi nor phone signal and no vehicle access – cars must be left at Carswell Farm on the steep, shelving cliffs above (electric vehicle charging is available). Guests are advised to don sturdy footwear, as reaching the hut requires a 15-minute walk down vertiginous coastal paths – all while carrying everything you need for your stay. Due to the rugged remoteness of the site, single occupancy is not allowed.

The hut is beautifully equipped and perfectly cosy

Although classic holiday spots such as Salcombe and Dartmoor are less than half an hour away, there is little incentive to leave the total privacy of your own littoral world. Indoor hammocks facing the sea provide the perfect place to read and relax, and an outdoor shower helps avoid traipsing sand inside after a sustaining swim or restorative bask in the sun. If guests are feeling active there are options to rent paddleboards to explore the surrounding coves or swing a racket on the Carswell Farm tennis court. When evening comes, light the firepit and gaze at the stars with a glass of wine until it’s time to climb into the mezzanine double berth and dream of doing it all again the next day.

Set in a private cove, Carswell Beach Hut offers spectacular sea views

From £455 per night.

GOOD FOR:

REMOTE RELAXATION
PRIVATE BEACH
GOING OFF-GRID

The Treehouse offers the perfect balance of seclusion and luxury

Fox & Hounds Treehouse, Eggesford, Mid Devon

Just metres from the banks of the River Taw, the plashing world of Tarka the Otter, the Treehouse rests among the gnarled boughs of a 350-year-old oak tree. Built in 2014 and nestled in six acres of private grounds midway between Exmoor and Dartmoor, this double-storey retreat comes fully equipped with worldly comforts right down to a copper bath, dishwasher and (in hushed tones) wi-fi. There is a master bedroom with a king-size bed as well as a second room with built-in bunk beds and space for two no-doubt-over-the-moon youngsters. The Faraway Tree has come to life.

Guests can also enjoy a spot of fishing on one of the hotel’s four beats on the Taw, including the Home Beat that runs through the grounds. Fishing for two is included in the Ultimate Fishing Break package or can be purchased separately (half day £15pp, full day £30pp).

After a day pitting one’s wits against the pristine wild brown trout and salmon for which the river is famed or enjoying a nostalgic passage to the coast on the nearby Tarka railway line, you can unwind with a sundowner on the heated wrap-around veranda or hunker down inside next to the wood burner. Various options from fully self-catered to breakfast and supper in the hotel can be booked, giving total flexibility. Dogs are spared a night in the car and more than welcome among the branches if they are able to negotiate the stairs.

Two-night minimum stay, from £325 per night.

GOOD FOR:

FAIRY-TALE SETTING
FISHING ON THE TAW
DOG-FRIENDLY

Russell on Exmoor allows guests a chance to truly recharge

Unplugged cabins, Exmoor, North Devon

Escape screens and constant scrolling with a serene, self-imposed rural exile in one of the Unplugged cabins dotted around the country. Created by Hector Hughes and Ben Elliott in 2020, Unplugged now has around 50 simple but supremely comfortable cabins in secluded yet accessible locations across the UK. They are built for a ‘life offline’ and are set up to help guests escape the ‘constant buzz of technology’ over a three- to four-night digital detox. Every cabin includes a phone lockbox, a replacement Nokia for emergencies, an instant camera, books and board games to help you truly switch off. All are surrounded by nature, boasting incredible views from the large picture window: a feature of each dwelling. Powered almost entirely by solar energy and built with low-carbon-impact materials, cabins are usually within a few hours’ drive of major cities, so while isolated they are reachable via regular means.

They are named after the dogs of the landowners or friends of the founders. Russell is perched high up on the slopes of a sweeping valley, offering a frontrow seat to the beauty of Exmoor where inhabitants can wake up to panoramic views of alpine-looking forests and rolling hills. An outdoor firepit provides a perfect focal point for an evening spent watching the sunset or cooking over the flames. As Exmoor is a designated Dark Sky Reserve, expect some of the clearest views of the heavens imaginable. Alternatively, a 10-minute drive from Russell is the Poltimore Inn, an eccentric out-ofthe- way pub with no mains electricity serving nourishing local fare where guests are invited to pour their own pints. Occupants are encouraged to bring their hound as long as they are careful of the surrounding sheep. With little to no phone signal and not a whiff of wi-fi, Russell offers an authentically offgrid escape and a chance to truly recharge.

Three-night minimum stay, prices from £465.

GOOD FOR:

DIGITAL DETOX
STUNNING VIEWS
DOGS WELCOME

Our monthly The Field to Fork newsletter brings together the best of The Field’s food and drink writing. Sign up here and receive a complimentary copy of a Decanter magazine wine guide.

It’s a cartoon-worthy, perfect spring day at Minette Batters’ rambling red-brick farm in south Wiltshire, the spire of Salisbury Cathedral peeping in the distance from her favourite vantage point. “I defy anyone not to think that this is the best time of year,” she says. “You’ve survived the winter and have the joy of new life. It makes you feel incredibly fortunate.” It has now been two years since the 58-year-old stepped down as president of the National Farmers Union (NFU): the first and only woman to hold the post in its 118-year history.

Crossbench peer

Since finishing her six-year stint as the voice of nearly 50,000 farming businesses, she’s been appointed as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, led the Farming Profitability Review commissioned by Defra (that outlines 57 recommendations to improve farm resilience and productivity, and has been credited with the softening of the inheritance tax reforms for farms) and found time to pen a book in the margins. Then there are her Continental-cross suckler herd, her sheep, some arable and a busy wedding venue on the farm – as well as her twin children Holly and George to find time for. “My kids think I’m bonkers,” she laughs. “When I was doing the profitability review last year, I tagged every single calf in our spring calving herd either before I went to London or when I got back. It keeps you grounded.”

Growing up with her brother on this 300-acre farm where her father Richard Hill had taken on the tenancy in 1972, Batters was enamoured by the animals. She was calving whenever she could, hunting with the Wilton (Hill was hunt secretary and her mother Bridget chairman) and eventually eventing to advanced level. In her early twenties she began riding out for local trainer David Elsworth – a heyday when Desert Orchid was on the yard – riding 30 point-to-point winners: the first on the same day that the Elsworth-trained Rhyme ’n’ Reason won the 1988 Grand National.

Horses nor farming

Batters’ father was adamant that neither horses nor farming were viable careers, so she trained as a chef and set up her own catering business. “But being told you can’t do something definitely focuses your mind,” she smiles, and by the age of 32 she’d sold her house and negotiated to take on the farm tenancy herself. “Everyone thought it was completely mad. Farming wasn’t in the best place and it was very run-down here.” Was she daunted? “At that age, I just thought it was hugely exciting. A bit like racing, you thrive on the adrenaline.” However, there were hurdles. “I remember a lorry driver coming here with a delivery. He asked to see the boss, and when I told him that was me he replied: ‘I mean a man, love.’ When I brought the loader back, he still had the tarpaulin shut.”

Over the next two decades, Batters rose through the ranks of the NFU, and in 2018 with a bursting in-tray – including post-Brexit trade deals, the climate crisis and mental health problems among the farming community – she was appointed president. “There were people who said that as a tenant farmer and a woman I would never be able to command the same respect as a man. It really hurt at the time. I felt enormous pressure not to fail,” she admits.

Plan for farming

Over her tenure she worked with four Prime Ministers and six Defra Secretaries of State. There was President Trump embarking on his first term to contend with, COVID-19 and the invasion of Ukraine. “At the time it felt relentless,” she says. But it was the lack of priority that food production and farming were given that left her flabbergasted. “I still find it bizarre that [the Government] doesn’t have a meaningful plan for farming or food because here we are again facing enormous global shocks. The cost of gas and fuel is skyrocketing. There’s so much more we could be doing with farming that would build resilience. I recently visited a dairy exporting green gas to well over 6,000 homes in the nearby town. Imagine if every dairy could do that?”

When Batters became president she made campaigning a priority: “The NFU hadn’t been a campaigning organisation at all, and I felt strongly that we needed to be selling what we are rather than what we want all the time,” she explains. The most recent NFU Farmer Favourability survey published last September found farming came second only to nursing as the most valued profession for the third year running: “Seeing that change made me feel all the campaigning made a difference.” Another triumph was launching the NFU food standards petition in 2020. This demanded that UK food imports maintain the same high environmental and animal welfare standards as British producers. It attracted more than one million signatures.

Marathon running

Decades of eye-wateringly early mornings show no sign of easing: she’s a marathon runner (“I’m now running faster than I was 10 years ago”), a trustee of the GWCT, a director of Salisbury Racecourse and the independent chair of British Racing’s Horse Welfare Board. She’s also just extended her lease on the farm for another 25 years. “I don’t know whether my children will ever farm because they’ve looked at me and thought ‘Why would we do that?’ Farming tests you. I remember being charged by a cow against a tree and if I hadn’t moved the second time that she went to charge she would have killed me. You do ask yourself why you want to do it at all. But you can’t replace it. It’s something that’s in your DNA.”

Minette Batters’ new book, Harvest (Ebury Press, £22), will be published on 28 May.

Honouring all breeds of dog irrespective of function or form, The Field  Top Dog Awards acknowledges the importance and invaluable contribution of Britain’s best canine companions.

Whether being towelled down at the end of a soggy yomp, leaping up to ruin a fresh shirt with muddy paws or sleepily laying a head on a lap in the gun bus between drives, dogs enrich our lives beyond measure. “The Top Dog Awards recognises not just faithful field companions but all dogs, from the bravest service hounds to the most indispensable assistance companions. I’m greatly looking forward to judging this year’s entries” says The Field’s Editor Alexandra Henton. In light of the value our four-legged companions bring to each day they are most deserving of a moment in the sun being celebrated with the  2026 Top Dog Awards held in association with Skinner’s. As the broadest of canine cathedrals, all are welcome from the bawdiest bichon frisé to the most magnificent malinois with 10 categories in total, to be judged by our panel of experts and a public vote.

Which category?

Experiences with family dogs often form some of our earliest and most cherished memories, be those stories of warmth and unfettered success in the field or mucky fiascos without equal. No matter if your hound is less than perfectly obedient, a ruthless operator or simply a beloved member of the tribe, we welcome their entry, Afghan hound to Airedale terrier, weimaraner to whippet.

Public vote awards are decided by you and include: Best puppy photo, Best working dog photo, Naughtiest dog, Ex-service dog award and Best assistance dog.

The Prize

As well as being featured in the magazine and invited to an exclusive awards event, the winners of each category will receive a Field Goody bag containing dry food, wet food and an energy bar from Skinner’s.

Vote here

Vote in the Public categories for:

• Best Gundog Puppy Photograph
• Best Working Dog Photograph
• Naughtiest Dog
• Best Assistance Dog

Voting opens on 14 May, closes 15 June 2026. To cast your vote, simply click this link.

Top Dog Award categories

Best Retrieve (spaniel, labrador or pointer)
A retrieve considered perfect or outstanding given particularly challenging or unusual conditions.

Best Retrieve (all other breeds)
A perfect retrieve or one considered outstanding in challenging or unusual conditions completed by breeds other than spaniels, labradors or pointers.

Most Promising Newcomer
An example of exemplary work from a gundog breed in its first season working.

Best Family Dog
A dog of any breed that has proved itself the ultimate all-round, child-friendly family pet.

Best Rehomed Dog
A dog of any breed that has thrived after being rehomed. Please state the rehoming charity/rescue the dog came from.

Best Puppy Photograph
An image featuring any dog breed that best encapsulates the appeal and cheekiness of puppies.

Best Working Dog Photograph
A picture that captures a working dog doing its job brilliantly and loving life.

Naughtiest Dog
A dog of any breed with a nose for trouble and misadventure.

Ex-Service Dog Award
An Armed Forces, Border Force, police or fire and rescue service dog of any breed that has performed its duties in exemplary fashion and is now enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

Best Assistance Dog
A dog, of any breed, whose owner’s life is enhanced by the assistance it provides. Please supply details of the charity that trained the dog.

The judging panel

Our carefully selected judges recognise excellence and potential across these categories: Best retrieve (Labrador, spaniel and pointer), Best retrieve (all other breeds), Most promising newcomer, Best family dog and Best rehomed dog.

Alexandra Henton
Dogs – gundogs, naughty dogs, puppies at walk and an occasional top dog – have always been features of the editor of The Field’s sporting life. This past season presented a first, when 18-month old Vesper, the black labrador, made her peg debut. “We have always had a dog that one could take out on a shoot day but she is the first I have trained myself. And on a drenching day in Hampshire she sat next to me throughout the drive without being pegged down and retrieved the bird I’d shot to hand at the end of the drive. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a better day, although we are very much still learning”. But it is not just high days in the field that make a top dog. “Whether I am in the office and have a paw put on my knee at 3pm hinting that surely it’s time for tea or she makes herself a constant trip hazard by refusing to move from the rug in front of the Aga, Vesper is a boon companion – even if my husband’s labrador watches her antics with some scepticism!”.

David Tomlinson
As The Field’s sporting dog columnist David Tomlinson covers everything from grooming to breed standards each month in our pages. “All dogs should be celebrated, not just champions, but it’s rewarding to appreciate those that are particularly talented,” he says about judging this year’s awards. “The best dogs are undoubtedly those that want to please. This is a natural trait some dogs have, regardless of their breeding or pedigree. After over 40 years of English springer spaniels, I now have Emma, a sprocker. The best of both worlds? Difficult question, but she’s 100% spaniel, and undoubtedly the easiest spaniel I’ve ever owned.”

Ben Skinner
Coming from a family business rooted in rural Suffolk since the 1600s, Ben Skinner brings both heritage and contemporary insight to the judging panel. His professional focus on dog nutrition has only deepened his appreciation of what makes an exceptional dog. “The finest dogs combine instinct, intelligence and generosity of spirit,” he says. “They give everything without expectation, and it is that selfless commitment whether in the field or at home that truly sets them apart.” “It’s a real pleasure to be judging The Top Dog Awards this year and I look forward to reading all of the entries”.

Ben has a nine-year-old black Labrador called Becky: “she always has something in her mouth and takes great pride in presenting it to you (and guests) the moment you walk through the door. She is kind and gentle by nature and amuses everyone at home – a wonderful companion and a typical labrador!”

Consent

By entering the Top Dog Awards 2026 you consent that all material sent to The Field can be published in the magazine or online. Visit: Top Dog Awards 2026 to vote. The winning entries for Naughtiest Dog, Best Working Dog Photograph, Best Assistance Dog, Best Puppy Photograph and the Ex-Service Dog Award will be decided by public vote.

Terms and conditions: Nominees must be UK residents. Promoter of the Top Dog Awards (Awards): Future Publishing Ltd (FUTURE), which has its registered offices located at Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA and is a company registered in England and Wales under company number 02008885. Eligibility excludes employees (including their families, including any live-in partner), any of the category sponsors, FUTURE’s printers and agents, and anyone materially connected to the administration of the Awards. You must be over 18 to submit a nomination unless you have permission from a parent/guardian and can evidence this on request. All nominations will become the property of FUTURE. FUTURE accepts no responsibility for nominations unsuccessfully submitted. These terms and conditions shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales, and any dispute shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. Full terms and conditions here.

To cast your vote, simply click this link.

Previous winners of the Top Dog Awards with their proud owners

Recipe for cherry and ricotta cake

Ingredients

• 180g salted butter, softened
• 300g caster sugar
• 250g ricotta
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 240g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 medium eggs
• 400g pitted cherries

You will need a lined 23cm-deep cake tin

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C fan/Gas Mark 5. Beat the butter and sugar with a mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the ricotta, lemon zest and vanilla, then beat for 5 more minutes.
2. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Beat the eggs lightly with the lemon juice. Add the dry ingredients and eggs to the ricotta mixture in two or three stages, mixing on a low speed until just combined.
3. Spoon half the batter into the tin and smooth it out. Scatter over half the cherries, then top with the remaining batter and finish with the rest of the cherries.
4. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until risen, golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. If it is colouring too quickly, loosely cover the top with foil for the final 15 minutes.
5. Leave the cake in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool. Serve with yoghurt or crème fraîche.

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The annual pilgrimage to The Game Fair is always a much-anticipated fixture in the diary but just imagine a full VIP experience, including tickets for all three days (24, 25, 26 July 2026) for a family of four?

Add into the mix, a glamping pod (with room for your dog) with breakfast every day; a meet-and-greet in the VIP enclosure sponsored by JM Finn with celebrity mixologist Merlin Griffiths to sample the official Game Fair cocktail; and platinum Sunday passes to the VIP enclosure that also entitle you to breakfast and Sunday lunch hosted by Dick and Angel Strawbridge. That’s exactly what will be on offer – plus more to the winner of this exclusive prize draw.

The prize also includes VIP Bronze entry on Friday and Saturday.

There’s a cornucopia of countryside sports and skills to try, and the prize features a fishing lesson from Orvis, shooting lesson courtesy of BASC, a craft experience and, last but not least, a Field goody bag.

To enter, all you need to do is answer a very simple question online. Please visit VIP Game Fair prize draw or scan the QR code below.  The competition closes at 11.59pm on 30 June.

Terms and conditions

*No purchase necessary. The prize draw opens at 12am BST on 12 May and closes at 11.59pm BST 30 June. To enter, scan the QR code or click here.

Late or incomplete entries will be disqualified. 18+, UK residents only (excluding employees of Future Publishing Limited, Coate PR and The Game Fair. One entry per household. No automated entries allowed. One winner will receive the prize (entry tickets for all days – 24, 25, 26 July 2026 – of The Game Fair at Ragley Hall for a family of four plus dog; a luxury glamping pod for family of four and a dog; Sunday Platinum VIP passes to include breakfast and lunch; a meet-and-greet with Merlin Griffiths on Sunday to sample the Game Fair cocktail; a BASC shooting lesson; Orvis fishing lesson; a craft experience and Field goody bag). The winner will be randomly drawn and notified by email within two days of the closing date, and must provide a valid email address. If no response is received within seven days an alternative winner will be drawn. Future Publishing Limited reserves the right to substitute the prize with an alternative product of equivalent value. The prize is non-transferable and non-refundable. No cash alternative. Void where prohibited. By taking part in this prize draw, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions, the competition rules at: www.futureplc.com/competition-rules/ and the collection of personal data in accordance with Future Publishing Limited’s privacy policy at: https://www.futureplc.com/privacy-policy/.

Renowned for attracting an influential crowd, The Game Fair regularly welcomes everyone from royalty to leading figures in food, farming and fieldsports (HRH The Princess Royal famously attended in 2022). This year promises to be no exception, offering visitors a unique opportunity to see, and be seen alongside, the personalities shaping the countryside today.

HRH The Princess Royal famously attended in 2022

Among the standout appearances for 2026, celebrated chef Marco Pierre White will host the VIP Enclosure sponsored by JM Finn on Friday, 24 July and Saturday, 25 July, personally curating the menu and bringing his signature flair, including his famous ‘Mr White’s Breakfast’.

 

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A post shared by The Game Fair (@thegamefair)

Meanwhile, fans of vintage machinery and rural engineering can look forward to Henry Cole of Shed & Buried, who will be showcasing some of his remarkable vehicles alongside the ever-popular Junk & Disorderly autojumble.

Dick and Angel Strawbridge

Regular hosts in the VIP Enclosure and extremely popular with visitors, Dick and Angel Strawbridge will be back for 2026, with appearances on stage in the Carter Jonas Game Fair Theatre and cookery demos at the BASC Wild Food Kitchen Theatre scheduled. The pair will also host Sunday lunch in the VIP Enclosure.

Phil Spencer at The Game Fair

Over the years, The Game Fair has played host to an impressive roll call of well-known names, from James Martin, Phil Spencer and Amanda Owen to Adam Henson, JB Gill and Vinnie Jones, cementing its reputation as a hub for industry figures. For those looking to connect with the people behind the UK’s rural sector, there is simply no better place to be this summer.

Vinnie Jones at The Game Fair

For tickets and VIP packages, visit The Game Fair.

Win a VIP experience to the Game Fair 2026 in our prize draw

Making a Test wicket that is ‘true’, with an even bounce, that wears somewhat over time without breaking up, demands enormous skill. It requires the groundsman to prepare a grass sward that he (they are mostly he, even now) then shaves with a lawnmower so that, essentially, the playing surface is created by the closely intermeshed roots. These roots must survive being pummelled by a hard ball hitting it at up to 90mph over as many as five days. Even a ‘green’ pitch only has a tiny length of grass growing on it. (You might like to read: 5 cricketers who love fieldsports.)

Bents and fescues

Of course, saying that the wicket is composed of grass is like saying that the Mass in B Minor is composed of black and white notes. True but hardly the whole story. Up to about 15 years ago, they consisted of a mixture of ‘bents’ and ‘fescues’, the kind of fine grasses that you find on a bare northern hillside; that’s because they can survive sheep grazing, which resembles, in effect, very close mowing. Lately, dwarf perennial ryegrass cultivars have come on to the market that do the job as well but are a little easier to manage.

Groundsmen must also take account of rainfall, drying winds and the needs of plants for sustenance and protection from disease, pests and weed competition. Much is technical and depends on a range of machinery, especially these days when there is an understandable reluctance to use chemicals.

Meticulous

The best groundsmen, like the best gardeners and the best cricketers, are meticulous, precise, thoughtful and hard-working. This brings me to what happened in late January 2024 in Hyderabad, when India played England in the first Test of the 2024 series. Will any cricket lover ever forget Tom Hartley’s seven wickets for 62 in the second innings that enabled England to win by 28 runs? It was a bravura performance by a debutant slow left-arm spinner, who happens to come from a long line of practical gardeners. He is a Hartley of Hartley’s Nurseries in Lydiate, Merseyside, and spent his school holidays working for his parents in this family business, planting hanging baskets, pricking out seedlings and doing the all-important watering.

It seems obvious to me that gardening is excellent training for a Test cricketer or, indeed, anyone dedicated to getting to the top of their sport. It’s surely no accident that his father, Bill, fifth-generation boss of Hartley’s, won a gold in the men’s 4 x 400m relay at the European Championships in Rome in 1974. After his son’s stunning success on debut, he told The Daily Telegraph that working with plants helped Tom ‘see the problem-solving you need on a daily basis: attention to detail, good habits. If you want to produce a good pack of bedding plants, everything has to be in the right sequence at the right time. And it’s no different than preparing for any kind of sport.’ How satisfactory that a plant nursery can be a nursery for sporting talent as well.

There’s a lesson here for other young people, surely. Those who left school or university this summer and are searching round for something to do might like to consider getting a temporary job at their local park, garden centre, plant nursery or country house public garden. Even if it only gives them time to think through what they want to do in life, it will not be time wasted. You never know, it might just be the beginning of a lifelong fascination with plants and gardening. It was for me. After university, I worked for the summer in a famous garden close to home, and soon discovered in myself a strong desire to make gardening my career. And I have never for a moment regretted that youthful, left-field decision.

Why wear polarised fishing sunglasses? Anne Woodcock, one of our Sporting Dianas, comments: “Wear your glasses and a hat, which not only protect you from the sun’s rays and the glare off the water but will save your eyes and head from hooks during a stray cast.” (You might also like to read our guide to the best fishing books.)

If you can’t see what’s under the water, you’re fishing blind. Polarised lenses transform the water’s surface from a blinding mirror into a transparent window. They also block harmful UVA/UVB rays, prevent long-term eye damage, and eliminate the need to squint, preventing “fishing headaches” and eye strain. (Read: five things to add to your fishing bucket list.)

Five of the best polarised fishing sunglasses

EXPERIENCE SUNGLASSES
Guideline

High-quality lenses ensure exceptional clarity, plus the curved shape provides added side coverage.

RRP £64.99

Buy now

4×4 SUNGLASSES
Vision

Wrap-around frame design with yellow lenses to enhance light in low-visibility conditions

RRP £49.99

Buy now

SPECTRE RETRO FULL-FRAME SUNGLASSES
Snowbee

Retro frames for old-school cool with the latest polarised lens technology for distortion-free fishing

RRP £50

Buy now

‘FIT OVER’ POLARISED SUNGLASSES
OverXcast

Made to be worn over normal glasses. The patented design blocks 100% of harmful UV rays.

RRP 36.99

Buy now

PRO SERIES TUNA ALLEY
Costa

Packed with fishing-enhancing features in addition to the colour-intensifying lens technology

RRP £237

Buy now

The history of polarised sunglasses

Modern sunglasses were introduced by Sam Foster, who sold them on the boardwalk at Atlantic City, New Jersey, from 1929; he went on to found Foster Grant. During the Thirties, the US military began commissioning glasses for pilots.

Then, in 1936, Edwin H Land patented polarised sunglasses and the first pair of Aviators, made by Ray-Ban, appeared the same year. The glasses dropped at the sides to allow pilots to read their instruments without the sun’s glare interfering. By 1937, they were available for the public to buy and they have shaded the peepers of pop stars and presidents ever since.

More on polarised lenses

• Photochromatic lenses darken with exposure to sunlight.
• Polarised lenses are treated to reduce glare.
• While polarised lenses reduce glare, they don’t automatically provide UV protection. For full protection, make sure sunglasses block 99-100% of UVA and UVB light, with protection against harmful blue light with wavelengths up to 400 nanometres (UV400).

This article was originally published in 2013 and has been updated. All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more  https://www.futureplc.com/terms-conditions/

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Here at The Field, we’re always keen to know what readers think and feel about our publication, whether you are a long-time subscriber or an occasional visitor. From shoot reports to sporting features, exclusive interviews to top columnists and everything else that gives shape to life in the countryside, your feedback is warmly appreciated. It also ensures that the fieldsports community has to hand the stories that define our world.

The survey below only takes 10 minutes to complete, and as a thank you for taking the time to participate, you can enter a prize draw at the end of the survey. We’ll select one winner to receive a £250 Fortnum & Mason gift card.*

TAKE THE SURVEY HERE

To enter the optional prize draw, please provide your email address and name when prompted at the end of the survey. This data will only be used for prize draw purposes. It is possible to submit your answers without providing those details.

The survey closes 2 June 2026

Privacy Notice

We will combine the answers you have given with other answers received and the results will be shared with internal teams to help us improve and understand yours and the reader’s thoughts on The Field. The answers you submit are compiled, aggregated and confidential, which means we remove the data that identifies you personally. We may use quotes from you, but only anonymously. The information that you provide will be processed, stored for research purposes as described in our Privacy Policy. By taking part in this survey you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions, and if applicable the competition rules at: www.futureplc.com/competition-rules/ and collection of personal data in accordance with Future’s privacy policy at: https://www.futureplc.com/privacy-policy/.

T&Cs

*Prize draw opens [9am] (BST) on 01/05/26 and closes [7am] (BST) 31/05/26. Late or incomplete entries will be disqualified. 18+, UK residents only (excluding employees of Future). One entry per household. No automated entries allowed. One winner will receive a £250 Fortnum & Mason Giftcard. The winner will be randomly drawn and notified by email within 28 days of the closing date, and must provide a UK delivery address. If no response is received within 28 days, an alternative winner will be drawn. Future reserves the right to substitute the prize with an alternative product of equivalent value. Prize is non-transferable and non-refundable. No cash alternative. Void where prohibited. By taking part in this prize draw you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions, the competition rules at: www.futureplc.com/competition-rules/ and collection of personal data in accordance with Future’s privacy policy at: https://www.futureplc.com/privacy-policy/.

The simulated shooting season is starting to swing. Over the past decade there has been exponential growth in the clay shooting on offer for keen close-season guns and those eager to give shooting a go. Particularly popular are days that aim to recreate the camaraderie and rhythms of a traditional shoot: think elegant Elevenses, excellent hosts, gun buses and banter. The sadness of the last shoot lunch no longer needs to be lingered over: corral the troops and put a spring or summertime simulated day into the diary. Yet with so many to choose from, how does one winkle out the shoot to suit? The Field has compiled a list of some of the best.

Away for the weekend

Plenty of top-drawer simulated shoots can provide excellent accommodation too. It’s the perfect reason to set off for some fun farther afield.

Ashcombe estate, Wiltshire

Expect to fire up to 1,000 cartridges on a day at this sporting paradise, where double gunning is heartily encouraged and the drives are always evolving. “It means returning teams don’t shoot the same drives year on year or even in the same season,” explains Miles Orford of Frederick Beesley, which took on the simulated days four years ago. Ashcombe uses a series of customdesigned trailers that give huge variety, while traps are out of sight to maintain a natural aesthetic. The food is of high order: flame-cooked and served at a WildKitchen safari tent overlooking the lake. Accommodation is available in the luxurious nine-bedroom Studio or The Farmhouse, a traditional shooting lodge.

Price: from £450pp including VAT (without accommodation). Teams: 4-18 guns. Single pegs: No.

F. Beesley

Bryngwyn

Bryngwyn estate, Powys 

This Welsh estate close to the Cheshire and Shropshire border has a choice of 16 drives utilising the steep topography and handsome parkland. High, simulated pheasants are a staple as are three lines of grouse butts. Double Barrelled Shooting has been putting on sim days here for the past 14 years, with drives designed by shoot captain Ian Hartland and his knowledgeable team. Hosting duties are shared by estate owner Auriol, Marchioness of Linlithgow, whose family has lived at Bryngwyn for more than two centuries. Elevenses by the lake are a must, and breakfast and lunch in the house are included (as is use of the billiard room for a cheeky post-shoot game of snooker or Freda). Guests can arrange to stay in the main house. “Our hospitality is legendary,” says Lady Linlithgow.

Price: from £285pp plus VAT (without accommodation). Teams: 12-20 guns. Single pegs: Yes.

Bryngwyn

Crogen estate, Denbighshire

The Robertson family has owned this estate, which covers 2,500 acres in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, since 1857 and is heavily involved with the sport. There’s simulated grouse on the 1,000- acre moor and the upland landscape is perfectly suited to towering drives. Shoot days have been run by Game On, led by Trevor Reece, for more than a decade with drives “designed by shooters for shooters”, he says. When you’ve had your sporting fill, hospitality includes unlimited gin and tonic, beer and wine with lunch. This can be served in the summer house metres from the Dee when the weather is fine. Additionally guests can arrange to stay in Crogen Hall or the comfortable Coach House.

Price: from £330pp (without accommodation). Teams: 12-22 guns Single pegs: occasionally.

Crogen estate

Drumlanrig, Dumfries and Galloway

Nestled in the picturesque Lowther Hills, the ‘Pink Palace’ is renowned for its array of sport. The Buccleuch team first offered simulated game days on Drumlanrig’s Queensberry estate in 2022. It is now famous for startlingly high clays. Breakfast rolls are served in the castle’s Steward’s Room and lunch is usually taken out on the heather or at an upland bothy. Days are aimed at seasoned guns, although it also hosts ‘have a go’ days for novices. After five drives, it’s back to the Steward’s Room for post-shoot sustenance or guests can enjoy fine dining at the 11-bedroom former factor’s residence, Dabton House.

Price: from £350pp including VAT (without accommodation). Teams: 8-18 guns. Single pegs: Yes.

Drumlanrig

Within striking distance of London

Eminently useful for those heading out from town, these simulated sporting days guarantee you’ll be back for bathtime.

Downlands, Hampshire. Image Sarah Farnsworth

Downlands, Hampshire

Barely an hour from west London, Downlands is jointly run as a regenerative farming business and simulated shoot. Approached via a deer park, it stretches across a valley of tranquil lakes, ancient woodland and unspoiled meadows. Co-owner Lydia Gilboy hosts the days with estate manager Luke Watts. Drives make the most of the varied terrain, including ‘grouse’ in wooden butts “tailored to replicate the challenge of driven grouse or to provide a perfect warmup for September partridge”, says Gilboy. Days conclude with a lakeside champagne reception. Organic estate produce is served in scenic locations from woodland cabins to a restored 16th-century barn.

Price: from £315pp plus VAT/£5,050 plus VAT for the day. Teams: 16 guns max. Single pegs: Yes.

Downlands

Englefield estate, Berkshire

Located just a few miles from Junction 12 off the M4, Englefield, the 15,000-acre home of the Benyon family, is already familiar to many from its appearances in productions such as The King’s Speech and The Crown. Purdey has had a 30-year relationship with the estate, and guests enjoy unparalleled access to the house with breakfast served on arrival overlooking the deer park. ‘Parkland pheasant’ and ‘flighted duck’ drives are as realistic as they come. Once shooting has concluded, guns return for drinks in the library before enjoying lunch in the Englefield dining room – an occasion in itself.

Price: from £365pp including VAT Teams: 18 guns (up to 32 guns for corporate days). Single pegs: Yes

Purdey

Seabrook Sporting, Essex

Established in 2022, Seabrook Sporting has created a shooting experience designed to challenge and entertain guns of all ability levels at its primary site, the family farm near Chelmsford. It now features a fast and exciting grouse drive, high woodland pheasant platforms, carefully dug low partridge drives, elevated treetop rabbit drives and simulated duck over one of the lakes (including exploding clays). Inhouse chefs keep everyone supplied with food and drink. Barely an hour from east London, it is ideally located for corporate events or just a day out of town. Seabrook runs other venues in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, and can even bring the sport to you, transporting equipment to private farms and estates (following a free consultation) for a simulated shoot at home.

Price: £250pp plus VAT. Teams: 10-18 guns. Single pegs: Yes.

Seabrook Sporting

The classics

Revered for delivering top-notch sporting excitement, these well-known names are on every simulated shooting bucket list.

Barbury Shooting School, Wiltshire

Run by the Stephens family, Barbury has more than 100 simulated days this season across its six different estates in Wiltshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. All host game shoots during the season and simulated days from March until the end of September. The Littlecote estate even has some simulated days planned for December: a true mark of their popularity. Managing director and owner Huw Stephens hosts the days assisted by his capable team, while his wife Victoria is known as the ‘queen of canapés’. Groups can book the whole day or individuals can buy single pegs. Expect to fire up to 400 cartridges over the five drives of the day.

Price: from £275pp including VAT Teams: 18 guns max. Single pegs: Yes

Barbury Shooting School

Great Tew estate

Prepare to enter a world of oak forests, bluebell-carpeted woodland and thatched cottages. This quintessential English estate, in the heart of the north Cotswolds, features an outstanding selection of drives brought to you by West London Shooting School. Guns will shoot challenging high pheasants on Cottenham Bank, unique and exhilarating grouse from eight stone butts on Raven Hill Moor, and feel the anticipation build as they wait for the partridge drive on Gorse Bank. With a renowned game shoot, the ground naturally lends itself to producing some of the best simulated clay drives anywhere in the country. Combining more than 6,000 clays flying over the team across five drives with superb food and drink in the field, a day at Great Tew is an excellent way to keep skills sharp, experience something new or reciprocate an invitation.

Price: from £325pp including VAT or £4,250 plus VAT for the day. Teams: 8-18 guns. Single pegs: Yes.

West London Shooting School

Raisthorpe Flyers, North Yorkshire

Guns love to return to this family-run farm in the heart of the Yorkshire Wolds (more than 90% are rebooked for this season), which has been flying clays since 2008. David and his two sons, Oliver and Edward, host teams of guns (some fully clad in tweed, others new to the sport) over six drives, tailored to guests, so that everyone is “hitting and happy”, believes Oliver. There are instructors and guns for hire too. Take Elevenses at The Covey, a newly built treehouse, or under canvas at The Nest and experience the famous wine train in the huge lodge. Expect all the simulatedshooting high points ticked off in style at this Yorkshire trailblazer.

Price: £470pp plus VAT, including cartridges. Teams: eight pegs for 16 guns Single pegs: Yes.

Raisthorpe Flyers

Six Mile Bottom Shoot, Cambridgeshire

Based on Wadlow Farm, the shoot sits at the heart of the old Cambridgeshire partridge belt. Simulated days follow the same contours as the former grey partridge drives. Established by Richard Clarke in 2003, the enterprise was built on his knowledge of the ground and passion for traditional East Anglian sport. A bespoke and fully portable clay trailer has eight programmable traps on a scissor lift, allowing for great variance and versatility. The dedicated team includes chef Alison Larkin who delivers delicious home-cooked food, including venison scotch eggs and partridge dishes. All are welcome, from those wanting a pre-season tune-up, syndicates and young shots to corporates, shooting clubs and individuals.

Price: from £195pp including VAT for a standard day/£450pp for a corporate day, including VAT and cartridges. Teams: 12-18 guns. Single pegs: Yes

Six Mile Bottom Shoot

Thimbleby, North Yorkshire

The 3,000-acre Thimbleby estate on the fringes of the North York Moors makes best use of its deep valleys, steep woodland and dramatic open upland to operate simulated days year round. With one or two shoots a week, it provides the perfect opportunity for a standalone day or some mid-season practice. Featuring all the latest technical wizardry to mimic high pheasants, partridges and grouse, the shooting is akin to a proper day in the field. Breakfast and lunch are served at the recently renovated Woodlands farmhouse, and Elevenses at a lakeside safari tent. The depth of experience offered by instructors and shooting-ground staff ensures clays are pitched correctly for all abilities. A recent partnership means the experience is curated by the Roxtons sporting agency.

Price: from £380pp, including VAT and cartridges. Teams: 10-18 guns Single pegs: Yes.

Thimbleby Shooting Ground

Stately surroundings

These rural piles and their bewitching grounds have all featured on film and television but it’s the first-rate simulated sport that keeps teams returning.

Boughton estate, Northamptonshire

With an 18th-century landscaped garden and one of the prettiest backdrops against which to shoot clays, the Boughton estate equals simulated shoot days in bigscreen- worthy surroundings. Each stand commands far-reaching views over the parkland and the duck drive has guns lined up along the ornamental lake inspired by Versailles. Little surprise films such as Napoleon and Les Misérables were shot at Boughton. Simulated game manager and host George Whittaker, former huntsman of the Woodland Pytchley, uses his hunting horn to signal the start and finish of each of the five drives. A picnic lunch is provided as well as roast beef with all the trimmings after shooting. Several hospitality packages are available to suit appetites and budgets, and the difficulty of clays can be adjusted to suit ability levels.

Price: from £200pp plus VAT depending on package. Teams: 10-18 guns. Single pegs: Yes.

Boughton House

Highclere Castle, Hampshire

The ancestral seat of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon (and the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey) enjoys a celebrated reputation thanks to wonderful downland topography and established woodland. Purdey at The Royal Berkshire has exclusive access to the estate, and its team provides drive after drive of pulse-raising simulated shooting. ‘Hampshire grouse’ and competition drives to establish the top gun for the day are interspersed with the usual shoot-day trappings, such as lunch in the famous Jack Russell pub.

Price: from £365pp including VAT Teams: 16 guns. Single pegs: Yes

Highclere Castle

West Wycombe estate, Buckinghamshire

This polished offering from EJ Churchill has everything one might hope to find on a sim day: from the backdrop of the neoclassical West Wycombe estate (setting of a host of period dramas) to the extraordinary hunting lodge at Fryers Farm where guns meet to start the day. Game-based sustenance is provided throughout by local caterers (think venison tacos and popcorn pigeon). Elevenses are served at the Temple of the Winds, a striking hilltop location, while lunch can be staged on Music Island reached by rowing boat. The rolling Chiltern topography is ideal for showing the best clays, with each drive feeling distinct. Alternatively, visit one of EJ Churchill’s other sites at Seal’s Cove in Aberdeenshire or the Swinton estate in North Yorkshire. Price: from £280pp plus VAT. Teams: 16 guns. Single pegs: Yes.

EJ Churchill

Friends and family

Boasting many of the touchstones of a game shoot but with an extra sprinkling of informality and fun, these setups don’t take themselves too seriously while providing truly exciting shooting and hospitality that’s second to none.

Callaly, Northumberland

Sally forth to the Callaly estate near Alnwick for testing shooting amid vast views of Northumberland from a series of elevated vantage points. The simulated shoot was started by owner Richard Bateson over a decade ago. He has used his 45 years’ experience running game shoots to provide as authentic an experience as possible. Days include two moorland grouse drives (driven and going away), high pheasants, partridges and a rabbit/duck/firework drive. The grouse and partridge drives use two sixtrap grouse simulators to imitate coveys alongside the other traps. All traps are set to random so even the hosts don’t know where clays are coming from. There is a variety of tailored hospitality packages to choose from.

Price: from £175pp plus VAT. Teams: 12- 16 guns. Single pegs: No.

Calally Clays

Hilldrop, Wiltshire

Set across three steep-sided valleys with splendid views of the Marlborough Downs, Hilldrop is an exciting prospect. Established by owner and host Tim Eliot-Cohen 25 years ago, there’s a range of options available, from lavish events suited to corporate entertaining and big birthdays, to lower-key family affairs. Alongside the jaw-droppingly high pheasants and partridges, the set-up also has snipe, teal and woodcock drives as well as ‘pest’ drives where guns can tackle magpies, rats and even exploding flying squirrels. Pimm’s and a panoramic picnic make up Elevenses while lunch takes place on the Ibiza-style roof terrace atop the newly finished Pool House. “For the past two years every single party has rebooked for the following season, which must imply that we are getting something right,” says Eliot-Cohen.

Price: £5,400 plus VAT. Teams: 20 guns. Single pegs: No.

Hilldrop Simulated Game Shoots

Medland estate, Devon

The rolling countryside of this Mid-Devon estate has superb ground. The gun bus ferries guests around a series of drives designed by Ashley Butler, whose family has owned the estate for half a century. Expect high pheasants, fizzing partridges and low, hurtling grouse with guns spread around woodland rides and meadows. Once finished, guns return for drinks and tapas to the licensed pub where they are served a flame-cooked lunch produced by Butler’s wife Becky: guns can look forward to scallops cooked on hot coals in their own shells, crown of grouse with rosehip ketchup, and fillet of Red Ruby Devon beef. With just 12 dates a year and most guests returning, it is worth booking early.

Price: £265pp plus VAT. Teams: 12- 16 guns. Single pegs: occasionally.

Butler Del Prado

Rievaulx Clays, North Yorkshire

Although the shoot has been in the Birkett family for decades, sim days started as recently as 2020 in this dramatic landscape. Running as a commercial game shoot during the season allows founder Henry Birkett and team to replicate the drives in the summer. Days begin with breakfast in the grounds of 12th-century Rievaulx Abbey while a Land Rover with an inbuilt pizza oven meets guests in the field for Elevenses. The shoot caters for all abilities: Bowman Flurry Master traps allow flightpaths to be altered midway through a drive if required. Rievaulx attracts all sorts, from young farmers and local tradesmen to corporate awaydays and stag dos. “A lot of our game clients join us in the summer, too,” says Birkett.

Price: from £350pp plus VAT, including cartridges. Teams: 10-18 guns. Single pegs: Yes.

Rievaulx Clays

“I am sure that all of you who are present here realise how much the building of this ship meant to the late King, my father,” spoke the late Queen on a gusty River Clyde in Glasgow, launching HMY Britannia in 1953. “He felt most strongly, as I do, that a yacht was a necessity and not a luxury for the head of our great British Commonwealth, between whose countries the sea is no barrier but the natural and indestructible highway.” Due to post-war austerity, the bottle smashed against her hull was Empire wine, not champagne. Still, Britannia made fitting use of that natural and indestructible highway, providing vivid formative experiences for His Majesty the current King, his younger siblings and so many others who boarded or merely beheld her, sometimes floodlit at night, sometimes gleaming by daylight, invariably in dramatic settings. The effect can still be felt today at a newly expanded visitor centre in Edinburgh’s Port of Leith.

Britannia’s shiny, blue surfaces drew inspiration from the late Duke of Edinburgh’s 29-foot sailing yacht, Bluebottle. As the late Duke explained: ‘She was painted dark blue with a red boot topping which I thought looked rather smart, so I suggested that Britannia should be painted in the same colour scheme.’ It proved a challenge to keep this eye-catching finish in tip-top condition. However, her commander at that time, Rear Admiral JH Adams, revealed one strategy was ‘to sail towards a rainstorm if we saw one and sit under it, turning first one side and then the other to the rain. Thus the whole of the yacht’s side was given a quick rinse.’ If only every cloud left such a silvery shining.

She was a one-off opportunity for a young couple to shape a palace in their image. The resulting Royal Apartments, designed by Sir Hugh Casson to be a country house at sea, would impress visitors for the next 44 years (and beyond) with their balance of grandeur and understatement. Rarely would an invitation to dine or visit be declined, up to the level of US presidents. “I know I promised Nancy everything in the world when I married her, but how can I ever top this?” marvelled Ronald Reagan on board.

Prince Philip, the late Queen, the then Prince of Wales and Princess Anne wave to the crowds as they sail from Cardiff

For her maiden global circumnavigation between 1956 and 1957 Britannia made it as far south as the Antarctic Circle, clocking up 39,549 miles in 110 days, visiting the most remote communities in the southern hemisphere, several only accessible by sea. On entering the Roaring Forties (named after latitude), the men aboard grew beards, Prince Philip included. The sense of privacy and affinity with the yacht’s special environment led the Royal Family to feel uniquely at home and at ease. The tradition of Britannia hosting Royal honeymoons began with Princess Margaret’s in 1960. Lady Glenconner, who later became Princess Margaret’s lady-inwaiting, was living on the more primitive Mustique at the time when one of Britannia’s tenders approached shore. “A man in white naval uniform appeared with an invitation to dine with them on the yacht,” recounts Lady Glenconner. “I wrote back: ‘Ma’am, it is very kind but we haven’t had a bath for about two months.’ A reply came saying they understood but wished for our company anyway, and would have a cabin put at our disposal. I soaked in that bath for quite some time. Bliss.” (Read our interview with Lady Glenconner here.)

Seventeen years later, during her Silver Jubilee, the Queen returned to Mustique on Britannia to visit Princess Margaret, by now living there. “She had a picnic with the Queen, who took to the water afterwards,” recalls Lady Glenconner. “This was extraordinary. She rarely swam anywhere, presumably for fear of being photographed.” Britannia also permitted the Royal Family to recuperate between official engagements ashore or functions aboard. Sailing at night, she allowed for visits to different islands on consecutive days during Caribbean tours. For all the later talk of costs and budgets, the yacht proved a remarkably efficient way of moving between countries. Over her lifetime, she would support 696 Royal overseas visits and a further 272 in home waters.

The late Queen boards Britannia for a cruise round the Outer Hebrides in 1995

A place of wonder

For the Royal children, she was a place of wonder. HRH The Princess Royal recalled the yachtsmen constructing a model of Britannia that she could actually drive or pedal around the deck (‘an astonishing piece of kit’, she remembered) and a water slide they rigged up that ‘came down the steps beside the Verandah Deck’, she said. ‘The fire hose was turned on at the top of the slide. Because the slide had a kink at the bottom, we would come down much faster with the water on, hit this puddle and go straight on across the deck pretty well towards the end.’ Recollections of the then Prince Charles prove yet more evocative. ‘I went down to watch the rum being rationed,’ he later confessed. ‘I have always had a thing about rum ever since because it smelt so delicious.’ Admiral Adams recalled him on deck playing with a football, which he kicked over the side: ‘The yachtsman assigned to keep an eye on Prince Charles said “Shall we go back for it?” The Prince replied “Yes please.” So I ran up to the bridge and asked if we could turn round and launch the boat to get the ball. Prince Charles thought this was enormous fun, so as we got under way again the Prince kicked it over the side again. I said “Sorry, we’re not going back a second time.”’

A country house at sea: the late Queen and her private secretary Sir
Martin Charteri reviewing papers in 1972

Having more than 240 yachtsmen and officers allowed for unique kinds of specialisation. The shipwrights, who could seemingly make or fix anything, rightfully received much attention. Yet the yacht’s first commanding officer, Captain JS Dalglish, revealed a wider versatility while discussing recruitment: ‘We had plenty of choice and found ourselves looking for people with unusual interests such as football referees, concert party experts, those who liked sailing or who had distinguished themselves in some way.’

The late Queen and Prince Philip disembark the yacht at St Kitts in 1985

One way they collectively distinguished themselves was by their silence, receiving orders using hand signals and noticeboards placed around the ship, and wearing plimsolls to further reduce noise. There was no loud tannoy or broadcast system. It created an atmosphere of effortless serenity. Aides to US President Ford were fascinated by how yachtsmen with them, outside the dining room in which their charge was ensconced, knew when he was within five minutes of leaving when they did not. Visitors were also astonished by how spotless the ship was, down to her laundry room, where temperatures could skyrocket in the Tropics, or the engine room; the mat before the entrance was intended for those entering, not leaving. ‘For me, it always seemed to be another home, like Balmoral or Sandringham,’ summed up the (now) King when describing annual summer sailings in Scotland’s Western Isles. ‘These people were always so loyal and had such high standards down to every last detail. They could turn their hand to almost anything, and do it properly – it was incredible. I was lucky enough to be transported in this living, working, sailing demonstration of the best of Britain.’

Britannia also served as a casualty evacuation ship, memorably in January 1986 off the coast of Aden. “One night, at 11pm, a Daily Order appeared on the noticeboard saying there’d been a military coup and Britannia was needed for a rescue operation,” reports William French, then a Royal steward. “Word soon returns that we have to bribe the rebels with provisions for them to hold off from firing. I pulled together half-a-tender-boat’s worth of chocolate and cigarettes.”

French goes on: “We had to strip the Royal Apartments, putting down tarps; getting medical facilities ready. We brought on 480 evacuees. The fear and gratitude in their eyes was unforgettable, so, too, the accumulating stench in those apartments.” The yacht ferried them across the Gulf of Aden, to Djibouti, returning to pick up more. “We went on this way for six days, rescuing 1,082 souls of 32 nationalities, till we came under direct fire ourselves, the shells screaming and thudding and landing within 20 yards of the hull. By the end, we could see the tanks massing on the beach. Only then did we leave.”

It took two weeks to clean and disinfect the ship and return the apartments to regal condition. The Queen was steadfastly supportive of the operation, and effusive with pride and appreciation. In 2023 one of the evacuees caught up with French at Britannia’s visitor centre in Leith. “He’d woken up one morning in Aden to the noise of a mortar shell flying through his hotel room window and smacking into the wall behind his bed,” says French. “He was sure he’d die out there, and described the appearance of Britannia on the horizon as being ‘like a dream’.”

The Royal Family felt uniquely at home and at ease on their ‘floating palace’

Her final engagement

Other memorable juxtapositions followed, notably Britannia ceremonially floodlit for the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. Former defence secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind had already concluded that Britannia could not be refitted: in order to meet legally required health-and-safety standards, the degree of repair and modernisation needed would have been ruinously expensive. Now came the announcement, under a new Labour government, that there would be no replacement. “I always hoped for a successor yacht,” says Sir Malcolm, who, as Secretary of State for Scotland, had stayed on Britannia during her 1986 Western Isles cruise, sharing a picnic with the Queen on Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides – “most informal”, he recalls.

Fully 7.5 million people have visited Britannia in Leith: more than the populations of Scotland, Denmark or Norway. The visitor centre, which reopened in May, is larger; its shop some 70% so. While a little of the majesty and mystique may have departed, our understanding of Britannia’s value has only grown, giving us a chance to take stock of why she’s so revered.

Britannia’s place in Britons’ hearts wells from her unique blend of roles: theatre for State occasions and projection of ‘soft power’; unusually well-adapted floating Royal residence; intrepid explorer yacht (with more than a million miles sailed); aquatic playground for younger Royals; valiant hospital ship; unrivalled venue for the promotion of British trade; plus, an academy for the perfection of seamanship, the like of which hasn’t been seen since. While she reflects a system of rule belonging to the last century, her precepts of excellence will remain forever relevant.

The writer is especially grateful to Richard Johnstone-Bryden for his official history of the Royal Yacht Britannia. To find out more, visit Royal Yacht Britannia.

Britannia on the Thames during the 50th anniversary celebrations of Victory over Japan Day in August 1995

Britannia’s spiritual successor

With a brick inglenook-style fireplace in her Tiree Lounge, individually designed cabins (named after Scottish landmarks) and overall countryhouse- at-sea feel, the Hebridean Princess may be the spiritual successor to Britannia. Certainly the late Queen chartered her twice, for her 80th birthday in 2006 and again in 2010, recreating Britannia’s Western Isles cruises. Indeed, owner Hebridean Island Cruises is the only cruise company to receive a Royal Warrant from the late Queen. The sailing season is April to October and a seven-day cruise from Oban starts at £3,450 per person, all-inclusive. For more information visit Hebridean Island Cruises.

Is it going to be your 4×4 that has a group clustered around it at picnic time? Will your point-to-point picnic be the ultimate?

Follow our advice and you’ll have standing room only. Point-to-pointing is a ton of fun and an absolute must for a jolly sporting weekend when the season is over. (You might also like to try the recipes included in our Best Elevenses snacks article here.)

Perfect point-to-point fodder

Think handy-held deliciousness, warming drinks if it’s cold, some convivial cocktails. We’ve done the thinking for you with our point-to-point picnic selection below.

Devilled egg dip

This spicy egg dip can be made the day before then boxed up ready to take on your picnic. I then also pack a box of mixed crudités, some savoury biscuits and crisps, and a wooden board to serve.

Nduja devilled eggs

These spicy treats will have your guests champing at the bit to tuck in.

Coronation pheasant vol-au-vents

With their light, crispy layers of buttery pastry, vol-au-vents are best eaten in the great outdoors. You can start from scratch with the cases but no one will judge you for using shop-bought ones (though sadly these often don’t come with the pastry ‘hats’).

Pheasant, chorizo and ‘feta’ hand pies

These handheld pies are big on flavour, and I find the ‘feta’ cheese creates an excellent balance with the meaty, spicy pheasant and chorizo.

Sausage rolls

Venison sausage rolls are a firm Field favourite.

You cannot go wrong with sausage rolls at a point-to-point picnic. In fact, they are a picnic hamper essential. And the only way to better a sausage roll is to add game. Use our recipe for venison sausage rolls which are sure to be popular. Plenty will be back for seconds but our recipe makes an enormous batch.

Or try these pheasant and tarragon sausage rolls if your freezer is still stuffed with pheasants. The season may be over but pigeon is prime eating now, so make woodpigeon sausage rolls – they are quick, simple and delicious. Or for something a little groovy, try wild rabbit rolls. These make larger rolls which are deliciously aromatic, with a rosemary skewer through each.

Pheasant scotch quails eggs

Homemade scotch eggs require a lighter touch than sausage rolls, but they make impressive picnic fodder. These pheasant scotch quails eggs are as delicious as the classic, but with an added gamey twist. And this succulent venison scotch egg is simpler to make than you think. You’ll be hard pressed to find a point-to-point punter willing to turn down the meaty exterior and runny yolk.

Pasties and pies

Game pie?

If you are looking for something substantial to add to the hamper, pasties and pies are guaranteed favourites. Our pheasant and walnut pasties can be miniaturised if you’d prefer a moreish morsel. And if you have run out of pheasant, venison makes an excellent alternative. Or if your freezer is filled with a rather mixed bag of game, try this game pasty recipe. For perfectly petite pastry parcels, our pheasant, cabbage and cheese pierogi are a popular offering. And finally for a fantastically impressive picnic centrepiece, replace the standard pork pie with a raised game pie. Delicious when served in generous wedges and scoffed from the back of the 4×4.

Soups

Keep soup handy in a flask for when the weather turns inclement.

When the weather turns inclement, something a little more warming is essential, so keep a flask filled with soup handy. Our Lebanese pheasant broth is warming but not too filling – perfect for when there is plenty more picnic to scoff. And when the weather worsens keep spirits high with game soup. It is nothing short of a miracle worker on chilly days.

Something sweet

Point-to-points call for pud, so keep something sweet in the hamper for when the rest has been scoffed.

Gooseberry, lime and elderflower travel cakes

These gooseberry, lime and elderflower travel cakes are inspired by the French tradition of bringing an edible present to a party or picnic.

And to drink?

Rhubarb and rosemary daiquiri

I love how the tart, fruity flavours of the rhubarb balance the bright acidity of lime and warming kick of rum.

You might also like to read: The Field’s guide to the picnic season

This article was first published in 2017 and has been updated. 

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