Game event raises funds for injured service personnel

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The Abbeystead Estate in Lancashire supported by the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation and BASC jointly hosted a hugely successful celebration of game event which aimed to raise funds for the state-of-the-art Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) at Loughborough.

This novel game evening, which attracted over 150 people, involved a series of informative talks by the estate keepers on English partridge, pheasants and red deer.  Following on from each presentation there were simple recipe demonstrations by one of three chefs relating to the game topics discussed by the keepers.

In the wings there were two more chefs supported by an army of volunteers preparing over 150 taster portions of the very same dish that the audience had just seen being prepared and cooked on stage.

All guests had a taste of partridge goujons cooked by Esther Veerman as well as pheasant scotch eggs cooked by Silver Sheldon who through owning a game farm and Hadrians Game Larder perfectly represents the concept from ‘egg to field to fork’.

The grouse dish was prepared by Chef James Kennedy from the award winning game restaurant, The Sutton Gamekeeper. In the interval a hearty Venison Stew was served to all by Harriet MacAuthur

The evening was coordinated by Rob Foster, Abbeystead Estate Moorland Technician, and his wife Helen, as part of a staff fundraising initiative for the DNRC. The DNRC is a £300m programme to provide a bespoke and purpose-built successor to the existing Defence rehabilitation establishment at Headley Court in Surrey treating injured soldiers, sailors and airmen with the potential for a complementary civilian (ie ‘National’) facility on the same site. It was the initiative of the 6th Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor – who led the charity fundraising drive with a personal founding gift of £70m – and was gifted to the nation by the Duke during a ceremony which included its patron the Duke of Cambridge and the Prime Minister, Theresa May, in June this year.

John Clark, the NGO’s Northern Development Officer, said, “We were delighted to help host this fantastic game evening with the Abbeystead Estate and BASC. The DNRC is an extremely worthwhile cause and we had a fantastic response from people wishing to learn more about game meat and how to cook and prepare it.  On the night we raised an impressive £5,000 which will be donated to the new ground-breaking facility for injured servicemen and women being constructed at Loughborough.”

Photocaption: Esta Veerman demonstrated how to prepare partridge goujons to a crowded room at the Abbeystead ‘Celebration of Game Evening’ which raised funds for the DNRC

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Notes to Editors:

The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation: The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) represents the gamekeepers of England and Wales. The NGO defends and promotes gamekeeping and gamekeepers and works to ensure high standards throughout the profession. The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation was founded in 1997 by a group of gamekeepers who felt that keepering was threatened by public misunderstanding and poor representation. Today, there are 13,000 members of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation.  www.nationalgamekeepers.org.uk