The keeper’s view

Thirty years old and still going strong, Shooting Gazette was first published in the year that the Berlin Wall came down. The average house cost £37,000 and we were getting approximately the same renumeration for venison that we are today. Pheasants not only had a value, but were also positively valuable. One hundred birds shot was a good day and I still had hair.

“Thirty years have seen the disappearance of much of our wildlife. Modern farming is wreaking havoc on certain species.”

Forty yards was a