There is a gun on display in the billiard room at Newby Hall near Ripon. It belonged to the 2nd Marquis of Ripon, considered the best shot in England. He died appropriately enough at his shooting butt in 1923 holding the record for shooting the greatest number of birds by one man, a staggering 556,000.

That this record should be held in Yorkshire, shows the importance of shooting in the region. And not just among the toffs. Mining communities shot sparrows and rooks for pies, the Victorians shot and ate all manner of birds: plover, curlew, gulls, finches. The stuffed birds that were displayed in Leeds City museum were actually bought in Leeds market intended for the pot. Until the late 80s it was still possible to buy rooks for rook pie from a butcher in Malton. Today, farmers and country people regularly set out with dog and gun for rough shooting of rabbit, pigeon, duck and wild pheasant.

But it is on some 500,000 acres across the North York Moors, the Dales and the Pennines that the valuable game shooting business takes place. The North York Moors has 21 estates over 185 miles of prime heather moorland. It is one of the largest stretches of heather in Britain and in August when the ling is in full flower, it is a breathtaking sight: a carpet of purple as far as the eye can see and the perfect habitat for the prized red grouse.

Wild red grouse have resisted all attempts to breed in captivity. Flying fast and low at speeds up to 80mph makes them the fastest and most difficult of game birds to shoot and by extension the most exciting. They are also the most expensive – it can cost £120 a brace to take part in a grouse shoot, though buying one to eat from a game dealer will be more reasonable at £8 a brace, making it one of the best value, free range birds on the market.

Owning and running a shooting estate is prohibitively expensive. Quite apart from actually buying the land, the Moorland Association reckon it costs £75,000 a year to run a grouse moor before the shooting begins and £1,800 a day to run a shoot.

Gamekeepers are employed by the estate to keep the moorland in good heart. They protect the birds from predators like foxes, magpies and crows which steal the eggs and they maintain the heather the grouse need for both feeding and nesting. It must be tall enough to provide cover with plenty of fresh new growth to feed on. To facilitate this, they carry out a programme of controlled burning, when strips of heather are burned in rotation to ‘shock’ the heather seed into setting and producing healthy, vigorous growth. It’s contentious issue. Some claim that burning destroys valuable flora and fauna and threatens wildlife habitats, and if not done properly can even alter the physical structure of the soil and the appearance of the landscape. While Defra acknowledge the advantages of burning, they emphasise it should be carried out under licence and according to strict guidelines.

The Glorious Twelfth of August is traditionally the day when grouse shooting begins, and the much hyped race to get the first grouse on the tables of places like the Savoy and the Dorchester. Some Yorkshire shoots actively avoid the 12th and the surrounding fuss, especially if it falls on a weekend when there are most visitors to the moors, but shooting starts in earnest within the following two weeks.

October 1st is the start of the pheasant season. Although pheasant are seen roaming wild, most will have been reared on game farms because pheasant is the backbone of the game shooting industry. To meet the demand, around 25 million pheasants are reared each year in enclosed woodland pens and released into the wild to acquire the characteristics of wild birds. Around half of them will be shot, leaving a further 12 million to roam the woods, country lanes and even suburban gardens.

To sell game, butchers need to licenced. Cockburn’s of Bedale (01677 422126) are one of the principal game dealers in the region. They run their own butchers shop in Bedale and are licenced game dealers. Their game book includes all the major Yorkshire shoots. Over the season they dress and pluck some 20,000 birds a year. Yorkshire Game at Brompton on Swale are a bigger enterprise supplying game to wholesalers and restaurants across the UK.

selected images kindly supplied by the Moorland Association.

 

back to top