THE GAME Fair celebrates its 65th anniversary this year
The celebration of the British countryside returns to Ragley Hall near Alcester from July 28 to 30.
The three-day event, which attracts some 120,000 visitors, will be showcasing everything from falconry and ferreting to gundogs and game cookery.
The event was co-founded in 1958 by Colonel Sir John Ruggles-Brise, president of the Country Land Association (now the Country Land & Business Association) and Nigel Gray, a senior advisory consultant at the Imperial Chemical Industries Game Research Station, a forerunner for Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Initially the CLA dismissed the idea, so Sir John offered to underwrite the whole project for the then large sum of £500.
Eventually the CLA felt it could not let him shoulder all the risk so the go-ahead was given. The first event was held in Suffolk, attracting 8,500 visitors – four times more than were expected.
Known originally as ‘The CLA Game Fair’, the event has been hosted at 28 different country estates across Britain, from Hampshire to County Durham and Powys to Dumfriesshire.
This year TV chef James Martin returns to host a lunch and he will be taking part in a gundog demonstration with his spaniel Cooper.
Lifelong fisherman, river campaigner and comedian Paul Whitehouse will be dropping in to host a Sunday lunch, meet fellow fishermen and raise awareness of Britain’s declining rivers.
Actor, angler and environmentalist Jim Murray will also make an appearance on the Sunday to promote Activist Anglers, a new initiative designed to educate anglers on how they can help protect waterways.
Visit www.gamefair.org for tickets and full details.
