Crichel Estate – An English Sporting Estate

Presented by Derek Woods

Director Pearce Sporting Services, Dorset England – Suppliers of game feed, game cover seed and ancillary equipment. Shoot Manager on the Crichel and Symondsbury Estates Director and Head Shooting Instructor of the DBW Clay Co.

Crichel Estate, circa 10,000 acres, is a private estate situated on the Dorset and Hampshire borders in southern England. The soil type varies from very flinty chalk on the eastern side of the estate to medium loam over chalk on the western side. The Estate farms circa 6,000 acres, which is divided equally between Organic and Conventional Agriculture. Livestock farming consists of two dairy herds and outdoor pigs. Circa 1,000 acres is in forestry, which includes plantations laid out especially for shooting. Over a 100 cottages and houses are owned by the Estate, most of which are rented out.

The Sporting interests of the estate are divided as follows:

1. Shooting
2. Stalking
3. Fishing
4. Shooting School and Clay Shoot, including Simulated Game Shooting

Shooting

The shoot releases both red legged French partridge and pheasants. The pheasant poults are brought on to the Estate in mid June at 7 weeks of age and released into open top purpose built release pens. Each pen is designed to hold 3,000 poults. The Red legs are brought in at 12 – 14 weeks of age and released into 40*40 pens spread over the estate. They are held in these pens for about 3-4 weeks.