Ben Hughes' story: From chasing sheep to taking on Brimpsfield Park

How a hatred of sheep led Ben Hughes to turn his family's small farm shoot into a thriving commercial shoot and game farm, and where his journey is taking him next

GunsOnPegs: How did you get into running shoots?

Ben Hughes: After I finished studying countryside management in game at Hartpury College, I was fortunate enough to secure my first job on the nextdoor estate to home. When I was 21, the neighbouring estate where I was working as a beat keeper was downsizing, so I took voluntary redundancy. I twiddled my fingers for a few months whilst lambing just shy of 800 breeding ewes for father, because he was unwell at the time.

Realising that my attitude towards sheep was similar to that of Caleb Cooper [Clarkson's Farm] I decided I would far rather rear a few more birds at home. I had always had a small rearing set up dating back to when I was 15 and had always reared up to 500 pheasants, which dad looked after when I was busy at work. We sold 3 or 4 days at home a year and had a family day. At that point, the days weren’t much bigger 50-75 birds.

GoP: Tell us about Hitchins Farm Shoot, how has the shoot developed over the years?

Ben: After finishing a full time keepering job, and not wanting to chase sheep around half of the Cotswolds, I put all my eggs in my very small basket. I grew the rearing field as well as the shoot over the next few years, rearing 10,000 birds by the time I was 24, shooting roughly 15 days.

I ended up with a game supplies company in my lap to deal with as well. (Bruern Game Supplies), but that’s a whole new story! So now I had a small rearing field and shoot accompanied by a game supplies company, which believe it or not all fitted hand in hand nicely.

When my friends learned that I was rearing a few birds, some of them asked me if I would rear some for them too. Some of them also ended up buying a day or two, and as one thing led to the other, by the age of 26, accompanied by a full time gamekeeper now, we reared 40,000 a mix of pheasant and partridge, as well as shooting 30 days at home.

*The famous 'Quarry' drive at Hitchins Farm Shoot*

The game supplies company went from strength to strength, starting to get a name in the shooting and rearing world. Over the next two years we took on another little estate to do 16 days, another 3 keepers and we reared another 100,000 bird for resale and for our own shoots.

Covid hit hard when it came, reducing our season. But we have pushed on ever since. It was our last year on our lease at the other estate last season, where we had had 4 extremely hard years - to the extent that in the fourth year we didn't release a single bird on that estate - and I thought it might be best to let it go. So we gave the lease up.

New ventures

GoP: I gather you’ve taken on the lease at Brimpsfield, how did that come about?

Ben: After giving the lease up at Withington estate, I thought rearing fewer pheasant and a few more partridge would fit nicely with where I saw the rearing field being for this coming year. Last year we reared just shy of 200k, in what probably was the trickiest season the game farm - and the whole shooting sector - had ever seen with bird flu being the main factor. Almost by accident, I seem to have one of the biggest rearing operations in the Cotswolds!

Luckily our own hatchery we had built saw us successfully hatching of over 40% of our rearing field's stock, and we are fully self sustainable to some extent. This being said, we are still feeling the aftershocks of Bird Flu and we're by no means out of the woods yet.

I wanted to rear partridge like a friend of mine, John, head keeper on a local estate that uses us for 99% of their equipment, does. I was searching high and low for the same sheds as we run back at home, but wanting them on the second hand market.

Whilst looking at the sheds at Brimpsfield Park, and hearing sad rumours that they might not run this coming season, I asked Archie “What are the chances you would let the lease out to me?” Archie has shot both on Withington and at my home shoot, with a team who come for a family ‘boys’ day with us every year; so he knows how I like to operate my days with the family feel.

After some lengthy meetings between Archie and myself, we came to an agreement that works and is fair to the both of us. So I can’t wait for this coming season to kick off!

GoP: What drew you to the shoot?

Ben: Brimpsfield is 35 minutes from home so well within striking distance to manage it and cast an eye over operations. I had never been lucky enough to have shot it myself, but hearing people raving about it makes me super excited to know that we will be running it. We have got a fantastic new shoot room going in, equipped with a log burner and an amazing view!

GoP: What excited you about the opportunity?

Ben: It’s new ground to me. The terrain is totally different to what we have at home: far more woodland - most of our drives at home are out of cover crops. The topography is different too, far steeper, so it should produce some birds to challenge any calibre of gun.I can honestly say that, based on my past experience and looking at some of the drives at Brimpsfield Park will show some birds that are right on the edge. Nevertheless, it isn't all ridiculously high stuff, there should be something for everyone to have a go at with confidence. I have excitement brewing and some ideas I can not wait to put in to practise.

Plans for the future

GoP: Where do you see things progressing in the next 5 years?

Ben: We will be slightly down-sizing the amount of days at home for this coming year, so that I can personally host all shoot days we sell. If I get super stuck I’ve got a fantastic host in Archie whom I may need to call on once or twice.

I have an amazing team behind me, who shouldn’t go unnoticed. If it wasn’t for them these opportunities and dreams wouldn’t become real! George Biss, who has been headkeeper and head of operations at Hitchins Farm for two years now, is so reliable that I have the confidence to leave the rearing field and the shoot at home in his capable hands, along with Harvey, Chad and Will, so that I can focus on new projects like taking on Brimpsfield Park.

My other half Olivia also deserves a shoutout for holding the fort when I'm hosting days, and for helping me to keep a level head when I get overexcited about some new plans. She also tells me when I am getting overexcited on peg.

My mum and dad are also a massive part of the team behind the scenes. Mum does does all the breakfasts, mega elevenses and aftershoot food for the home estate; it wouldn’t be what it is without her. [Having had the pleasure of experiencing Mrs. Hughes' catering, GunsOnPegs can confirm the truth of this statement. Ed.]

Dad is another person who I run a lot of my ideas past. I have him, my uncle and two grandfathers to blame for my absolute love for the countryside. They are the reason I do what I do today!

GoP: What changes if any will you be looking to make?

Ben: In the first year I can’t see anything drastic changing. Drive-wise we will have very little change, maybe just moving flushing points as confidence increases through our first year, flying birds from higher up the banks and trying to get the full potential out of each drive. This year we're extending a couple of release pens to help get the birds going where we want them to go.

The biggest change is the shoot room which is going in, I think this give us a great base on the estate to work from with our teams. It is a lovely annexe of the main house with glorious views across the estate, down the main valley. There'll be a log burner, and our in-house chef will be beavering away to cook some wonderful meals. We hope to keep the estate's existing team of beaters/pickers and loaders as best as we can as well!

GoP: What can visiting teams expect?

Ben: An extremely fun family-feel day, with birds challenging all capabilities, some which will undoubtedly challenge the best in the business. Hospitality will be second to none, the huge range of nibbles at elevenses which is secretly my favourite part of the day!

Conservation

GoP: Tell us a bit about your ethos when it comes to driven game shooting?

Ben: I’m extremely passionate about wildlife, how it should be looked after, game shooting estates thrive with wildlife, our home estate does due to all our hard work monitoring and looking after it with bumble bee mixtures/ wild bird mixtures, hedgerows, and waterways as well as supplementary feeding all the wild birds through winter in to the spring. Which in turn are the same schemes Brimpsfield Park are in so the understanding and our goals are the same.

I think it’s super important as shooting estates (not just the ones I run) that we are all seen to be putting in the extra work for our wildlife, maintaining a healthy populations and giving them exactly what they need through tough times of the year. There now isn't a field on the farm at Hitchins that doesn't have some form of cover on it, and I'm really proud of that.

GoP: What kinds of teams would suit a day at Brimpsfield?

Ben: We would like to welcome teams from all walks of life. Unfortunately shooting isn’t getting any cheaper which we as a company understand. We have seen price increase after price increase over the last few years. We can put a package together to suit most teams’ needs; some drives are not for the faint hearted!

Smooth transition

As well as speaking to Ben, we asked Archie Larthe, whose family own Brimpsfield Park, to tell us a little more about Ben's new undertaking.

Archie said:

Brimpsfield Park Estate has been in the family since 1958, and shot every year since. The shoot was little more than a modest DIY affair producing two to three small family and friends days per season.

Our father returned from a five-year stint in Saudi Arabia in the late ’70s and realised that we needed to find an additional revenue stream if the Estate was to continue supporting itself. He had always believed that we had the right ground and topography to do much more with the shoot, so, with the help and support of Mum he focussed his efforts on developing it into a commercial operation. Woods, hedgerows and cover crops were planted, a full-time gamekeeper was employed, and by 1987, seven years after taking over the running of the estate, he sold the first ever let day at Brimpsfield Park.

By the mid-90s, Brimpsfield was shooting between 35 and 40 let days per season with bags upwards of 300. This continued until around the mid-2000’s until Dad’s health had deteriorated to the extent that running such a busy shoot schedule had become a struggle (he always insisted on hosting the days himself). As a result he decided to scale things back slightly, reducing the number of let days per season to a more manageable 25.

Our father died in 2015; Mum ran the show single handed for three years and in 2018 I came home to take over running the Estate with the support of my Mother and brother. Together we grew the shoot back up and in the last few seasons have shot around 45 days.

With Bird flu becoming more prevalent we as a family made a hard and begrudging decision to reign back from game shooting and focus our efforts elsewhere. Around the same time Ben and I sparked up a conversation and the rest, as they say, is history. Ben and I have known each other for several years. For us as a family the most crucial aspect of anyone coming in was to understand what we have built up and to cherish that. undefinedBen and I are the same age and share similar outlooks and aspirations when it comes to shooting, he understands about all aspects that are crucial to a successful shoot. Ben is in a Countryside Stewardship scheme at his home which we also signed into in January 2022. This is something we’re passionate about and believe it’s essential to both the shoot and allowing natural habitat to continue to thrive.

We are excited to have Ben on board this coming season as custodian of Brimpsfield’s shooting field and are looking forward to his new ideas coming to fruition this season.

Listen to Ben on the GunsOnPegs Podcast

Book a day at Brimspfield Park or Hitchins Farm Shoot

If you and or your team would like to experience the family atmosphere and challenging shooting at either of the shoots mentioned in this article, get in touch with Ben via the Hitchins Farm Shoot or Brimpsfield Park listings on GunsOnPegs.