The Great Day

Rothwell was put on the map for all time and Joseph Nickerson’s (JN) reputation as one of finest shots and shoot owners was made. The news caused a real sensation and was widely reported in the sporting press. It had been a very deliberate and carefully orchestrated attempt to break the record and was the culmination of years of habitat improvement and sheer grind by his team of keepers.

In those days the grey or English partridge was the main game bird in Britain. The Eley cartridge company claimed at the time that the sale of its cartridges depended more on the partridge than any other quarry, including the rabbit. JN used to say that about two million partridges were shot each year in Britain then, without any impact on future stock. Since then, and the advent of winter cropping, the grey partridge’s demise was so fast that in less than 60 years since the record-breaking day, wild English partridges are now so uncommon in much of Britain, that on some shoots the guns are forbidden to shoot them at all.

When JN started farming at Rothwell, in the mid-Thirties, the farm was riddled with rabbits, rooks and magpies, with barely a tree on the place. After the War, a typical bag might have yielded about 40 brace. It’s hard to believe that a few years later, in 1950, six guns shot 1,091 grey English partridges and this on a very wet and windy day. In 1957, five years after the Great Day, again with just six guns, 1,016 partridges were shot at Rothwell. The large bags continued until the mid Sixties.

When JN’s friends received their invitations to shoot at Rothwell in 1952, they were in no doubt that the aim was to break the world record, because enclosed with it was a separate sheet of instructions for the day, entitled Notes for Guns. (Excerpt)

Transport: each gun will have a separate Land Rover, with his driver, spotter and two loaders.

Route: The other five Land Rovers in the guns’ team will all on occasion follow JN’s Land Rover CJV 609 which will fly a green and white flag.

Tow Ropes: Land Rovers CJV609, CEE 105 and CEE 200 will carry towropes.

Ammunition and Supplies: Please check that your own man places in your Land Rover sufficient ammunition, food, mackintoshes and all your requirements for the day.

The Ladies: The ladies are invited in time to move off from Rothwell House at 12 noon. Groom Day will be there to lead them to the scene of operations. Will they bring their own sandwich lunch and be changed in time for dinner at 7.30pm.

From JN’s notes we know that all the birds were wild and all the drives downwind, with only one return drive, so the guns were shooting fresh birds almost all day. They needed two loaders because they used three guns to cope with the heat of the barrels.

On the Great Day 3rd October 1952, 2,119 wild partridges were shot at Rothwell, Lincolnshire, by a team of 6 guns comprising JN and his brother Sam Nickerson, and JN’s brother in law, Peter K. Dennis, close friends Richard F. Dennis, Frederick R. Davy and Leonard Lamyman. This is still a current record. There were also 156 pheasants, 151 hares, 11 rabbits, 2 pigeons and 3 various- a total of 2342. Of the partridges, only 50 were French , the rest being Wild Grey or English partridges. Of these, 1379 were young birds.

Those who don’t know Lincolnshire might assume that the terrain is flat and the birds low and easy to shoot, but the Lincolnshire Wolds are steep and at that time Rothwell had some of the steepest land under cultivation in the UK. Even today, specialist combine harvesters are required to overcome the gradient.

One of the key reasons for JN and his keepers managing to get the bird numbers up so fast and so successfully was that JN had an encyclopedic knowledge of the grey partridge. When he was eight, his father suggested he select a subject to study throughout his life, to become more knowledgeable about it than anyone else. He grew up “hedging and ditching” in the Lincolnshire Wolds and spent much of his time outdoors, so he chose the English partridge.

JN’s in-depth knowledge of the bird not only helped with increasing the stock, by providing exactly the right habitat, it also helped him understand how the birds reacted and why. This awareness was essential for deciding exactly how to drive the birds and where to line up the guns. It was a serious skill and on those big-bag days, the coordinated work of the keepers, how they managed their two teams of beaters and how they drove the birds towards the guns (with no radio communication) was a major part of the success of the day. The flankers were taught their skills directly by JN who oversaw it all and orchestrated it with his right-hand man, head- keeper Archie Jacob.

In A Shooting Man’s Creed, written by JN, much information can be obtained about the work done to create such huge numbers of wild partridges. Despite the vast changes in farming, which caused the decline of this wonderful game bird, many of the strategies and techniques he and his team employed are just as relevant today.

The main ingredient for a wild-bird shoot is intensive keepering to carry out vermin control. At the time of the record, 14 keepers were employed. “Dusting shelters” were constructed every 100yards. Grit is vital to partridges’ digestion and was shoveled along farm roads and into hedge bottoms, a favourite place for the birds. Kale was planted in long, narrow strips and left for two years, to provide much-needed cover. Additional feed was scattered into cover by hand, from mid September to mid April. Every nest was marked by a discreet white peg 12ft away and noted on a master list. This was so the keepers could keep an eye on it from afar to ensure no predators could stalk the hen, and if she deserted her eggs they would be incubated.

JN planted many thousands of yards of hedgerows and in the course of his life planted over 250,000 trees. However, if the weather in mid June, when the broods hatch, is too cold and wet, partridge chicks will die, no matter how plush their surroundings, so June 1952 must have been particularly clement.

People might assume that Rothwell was purely a wild-partridge shoot in the Fifties, but it was a commercial working farm, and in the year of the world record received 5,000 visitors as it was regarded as a model. As many as 600 casual labourers were needed to bring in the pea harvest. JN turned having so many people employed on the farm to his advantage.

This is an excerpt from a letter placed in the wage packet of every farm worker in May 1952:

“The British record partridge bag stands at 835 and a half brace in one day. It was achieved in 1905 in Norfolk on the estate of Lord Leicester, who had forty-two gamekeepers. We are going to beat it if we can, so I am going to make you all keepers for a few minutes each week. I want you to help me by regarding the game on the property as a crop. When working in the fields during the next eight weeks, you can be of enormous help by being careful where you sit down to lunch, so as not to disturb nesting birds. Choose bare ground when possible. Go through recognized gateways, stick to tracks and do not cut corners. Please report all the nests you may spot. Two shillings will be paid for every nest found which was previously unknown to us… If you see any traces of rats, let us know. Do not leave bits of paper in the hedge bottom. When blown about they can disturb sitting birds.”

This level of detail was typical of JN, who was an absolute perfectionist.

The whole farm and village were in on the project, everyone wanted him to succeed and the publicity, which followed, gave them all a huge surge in morale, which in the austerity in that post-War period was much needed. It also really put Rothwell on the map, and meant that when JN wrote to HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, inviting him to shoot, his invitation was enthusiastically received. Prince Philip became a regular guest, as did other members of his family. One cannot underestimate the uplifting effect a royal visit had on everyone involved with the shoot and farm.

JN’s love of the English partridge was simply a part of him. It made him the person he was. His blazer buttons had partridge motifs on them, and certain members of his family and staff were given these special buttons. His favourite cars each had discreet, exquisitely painted partridge motifs on its passenger doors. When JN was knighted in 1982, it was no surprise that he chose the partridge to form the main image of his armorial crest.