An Essex shoot that’s certainly no joke
They begin as specks in the sky, then fly over the hedge and treetops with abundant regularity, dipping their wings before coming into range – and that’s just the aeroplanes from nearby Stansted airport. Four miles east of this busy transport hub is the historic market town of Great Dunmow and, 10 minutes south of this, the landscape and roar of the A120 give way to quiet Essex country lanes and County Farm in High Roding, home to John Savage and his family and their award-winning pheasant and partridge shoot.
Like the aeroplanes of Stansted, the birds over this 1,500 acres of Essex farmland – comprising the sporting rights across four farms that the Savages have managed with their shoot for the past 30 years – come straight and fast. For a flat country, they also have flight and height, a result of careful hedgerow and covert management, which saw the County Farm Shoot receive a 2018 Purdey Awards Highly Commended Certificate at a ceremony in
