Is shooting more expensive today?
When I was 11 in the early 1970s, I went beating at a nice farmer’s shoot at Limpley Stoke near Bath. I had a thoroughly enjoyable day and at the end I was given one of the new 50p pieces as payment; the adult beaters received 80p each. I was thrilled – enough to buy comics, sweets and crisps with money left over. The local butcher took the pheasants not claimed by guns or bought by helpers. He paid £3 per brace and sold them in his Bath butcher’s shop at £4 per brace. This was at a time when an annual income of £1,000 was not to be sneered at and a small terraced house in Bath sold for around £1,500.
How different today. Beaters, even youngsters, can expect £25-plus each, even on modest ‘farmers shoots’, and the owners of such shoots are grateful if they get any money when distributing the results of the day’s sport.
