News

PURDEY AWARDS FOR GAME AND CONSERVATION

November 20th 2003

First Prize Winner

Ian and Claire Smith of Nether Hale Farm, Birchington on Sea, near Margate, Kent have won first prize in the 2003 Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation. Mr and Mrs Smith will be presented with a cheque for £5,000 and the Purdey Awards Shield, by Sir Max Hastings, journalist, author, and a former editor of the Daily Telegraph and the London Evening Standard, at this year’s awards ceremony on 20th November. This will be held in the Long Room at the South Audley Street headquarters of James Purdey & Sons Ltd.

Mr and Mrs Smith were awarded first prize in recognition of their outstanding conservation work at Nether Hale Farm over the past six years. In this time they have converted their 350 acre farm from an intensive vegetable growing operation for supermarkets, to cereals and incorporating aspects of the Countryside Stewardship scheme. In doing so they have demonstrated how, through a less intensive farming regime, it has been possible to use set aside to maximum advantage for habitat improvements to attract and hold wild game, particularly Grey partridge, and to see a corresponding increase in the species and population counts of song birds. Fields enlarged by hedgerow removal in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s are being returned to their original size by the introduction of beetle banks and game strips, and new ponds have been created to attract a wide variety of wild duck and geese.


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Richard Purdey, Chairman of James Purdey & Sons, said the Panel of Judges voted Nether Hale Farm into first place because: “It is a model example of how clear objectives, good advice, and a lot of hard work has created this wonderful haven for game and so many other species of birds. Nether Hale Farm is giving the owners so much enjoyment from actively improving the biodiversity on their land, and running a first rate farm shoot”.

Second Prize Winner

The Purdey Awards judges voted the second prize of £1,500 to Martin Vallance, of Brompton – on - Swale, North Yorkshire. Mr Vallance’s restoration of the 2,000 acre Arkleside Moor was considered to be an exceptional achievement given its over grazed and run down state when purchased in 1996. The visiting judges reported it now to be a model of good grouse moor management with results to match.

Richard Purdey said: “Martin Vallance, as area representative for the Moorland Association in the Yorkshire Dales, is well known for his passionate enthusiasm for the whole subject of moorland management, and grouse in particular, so we are all the more delighted to be recognising his work at Arkleside with a major prize in this year's Awards. It is a great achievement to have successfully started the restoration of such a large area of heather in this relatively short time and to be seeing the upward trend in Arkleside’s grouse population and bags which, in the last three years, are averaging three times the level of six years ago. Key factors have been the removal of 1,000 sheep in winter, the reseeding with heather of 150 acres of white land, plus the first class vermin control by gamekeeper Karl Alderson.” As Martin Vallance says himself: “I never stop promoting the value of good grouse moor management for both the environment and the community, because it isn’t just the grouse that benefit, it’s so many other species of bird and plant life too.”

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Third Prize Winner

Andrew Green, owner of Kingfishers Bridge wetland creation project, near Ely, Cambridgeshire has won third prize and a cheque for £500. The project consists of 300 acres of former black fen and limestone farmland, which has been allowed to revert to wetland to create a multiplicity of habitats of sufficient size to attract a complete spectrum of the flora and fauna to be found in East Anglia. Mr. Green, together with his two sons who co own the farm, works closely with all the conservation bodies in the UK and actively promote the Kingfisher’s Bridge project to Cambridge University science departments and research groups for teaching, research, PhD work and ecological development monitoring. Their excellent conservation work allows for a high degree of public access, and they enjoy running a small exclusively wild bird shoot for themselves and a few friends.

Special Awards

The Purdey Awards judges also decided to make two special awards in recognition of two very different projects.

The Clevedon and District Gun and Wildfowling Club, Clevedon, Somerset, receives a cheque for £500 for excellent conservation practice by its members in the creation of a new flight pond, ‘Hubert’s Pool’ near Nailsea, on a 4 ½ acre field formerly used for low grade grazing. The pond is named in memory of former club chairman, the late Hubert Rogers, himself a former chairman of the Club, and uncle of the Club’s present vice chairman Roy Rogers. The visiting judges were impressed not only by the quality of the conservation work but also the leadership, team spirit and enthusiasm shown in undertaking and running this successful and ambitious project. The members have good duck shooting and the satisfaction of initiating good conservation work. Biodiversity has flourished as a result of their efforts.
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The other special award this year was made to Richard May of Macclesfield, Cheshire in recognition of his single-minded dedication in successfully restoring heather on his 600 acre High Moor and Piggford Moor with the aim of once again seeing them sustain a population of red and black grouse. Beginning in 1992, Richard May has achieved a truly remarkable rehabilitation of once productive but latterly neglected and overgrazed grouse moors on which only white grass could flourish. Although the population of red grouse is as yet small there is clear evidence that the successful regeneration of heather is starting to attract and hold coveys. Seven red grouse broods were successfully reared in 2002 and one grey hen successfully raised a brood of 6 chicks. High Moor and Piggford can now boast red grouse, black game, snow bunting, short eared owls, skylarks, lapwings, curlews, and brown hares, plus many other smaller species of bird and wildlife. As the grouse population increases more shooting days will be held as part of the essential management of these moors.

The presentations of the 2003 Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation, by Sir Max Hastings, will take place in The Long Room at James Purdey & Sons Ltd., 57-58 South Audley Street London, W1 at 12 noon on Thursday, November 20th 2003.

The Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation are now in their fifth year, the sponsorship having been taken over in 1999 by James Purdey & Sons from Laurent Perrier Champagne, who initiated the annual competition in 1985. The Panel of Judges is chaired by the Marquess of Douro, and the competition is organised and run by Richard Purdey, Chairman of James Purdey & Sons, in close cooperation with the Game Conservancy Trust.





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Laurent Perrier UK continue to give their encouragement and support to the awards by generously donating a Jeroboam of their champagne to the winner, a Magnum to the runner up, bottles to all the other winners and short-listed entrants, and the champagne for the Awards presentation ceremony.

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For further information please contact:
Electra Souras, PR Manager, James Purdey & Sons: tel: 0207 838 8236
email: electra.souras@richemont.com

EDITORS NOTES

This year’s Panel of Judges for the Purdey Award for Game and Conservation was chaired by the Marquess of Douro, and consisted of:

• David Clark, head keeper at Sandringham and former winner of the Awards when he was head keeper at Raby
• Will Garfit, a highly acclaimed game and pigeon shot and probably Britain’s most famous river artist
• The Marchioness of Hartington, conservationist, equestrian and countrywoman
• John Humphreys, Shooting Times columnist, countryside enthusiast and raconteur, and winner of the 1996 Award
• Sporting paintings and prints specialist, Malcolm Innes
• Jonathan Kennedy, celebrated grouse shot and partner in the leading London sporting property agents CKD Kennedy Macpherson
• Agricultural journalist, countryside enthusiast and equestrian, Alison Lea
• Barrister and field sports campaigner, Baroness Ann Mallalieu, QC
• Richard Nicholson, shoot owner and former Managing Director of Laurent Perrier Champagne
• Journalist and field sports enthusiast, Willy Poole
• Richard Purdey, Chairman of James Purdey & Sons Ltd
• Shooting Gazette contributor and author, Piffa Schroder
• Richard Strang Steel, active in game conservation in Scotland
• Shropshire farmer, Henry Yates, conservationist, broadcaster and author
• Jonathan Young, Editor of The Field







The annual Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation aim to encourage imaginative conservation projects which improve habitats for both reared and wild game birds, and which in the process benefit other species of flora and fauna and enhance enjoyment of the shoot and of the countryside. Entry forms for next year’s Awards will be available from 15th March 2004 and must be returned to the Game Conservancy Trust by 31st May 2004. Following assessment and advice from Game Conservancy Trust advisers, the Purdey Awards judges produce a shortlist of entries by mid June. Members of the Panel then undertake site visits during August and September before reconvening in October to determine the winners.

James Purdey & Sons Ltd is a member of the Richemont Group of companies. Other well known brands within the Richemont Group include: Cartier, Montblanc, Van Cleef & Arpels, dunhill, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, Jaeger Le Coultre, and Hackett to name just a few.

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