ORGANIC WOOL ACCESSORIES
FROM SHEEP TO SHELF
THE FIRST RANGE OF FULLY TRACEABLE ORGANIC WOOL ACCESSORIES FROM JAMES PURDEY & SONS
A selection of fine accessories made from the UK’s first ecologically friendly and fully traceable Organic wool are now available to buy from James Purdey & Sons, the world renowned gun and rifle makers. Unique to the industry, the labelling reveals the farm from where the wool originates, such as the Duchy and National Trust Farms, and the date it was sheared. Entirely hand knitted in the UK the range is fully traceable from the sheep’s wool to the organic spinning and dyeing which is fully approved by The Soil Association. The Organic wool accessories are made without harsh chemicals or unnecessary mechanical processes which can strip away the natural properties of the wool, using instead a dyeing process that has been approved by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and The Soil Association.
The new range includes stockings, boot socks, garters, hand warmers and berets and will be available in three colours: Ecru, Charcoal and Green. The wool is sourced from Cornish Organic Wool in the West Country where not only are the sheep reared organically, but for the end product to meet the strict standards of the Soil Association, the fleece is washed using vegetable based soaps then spun and dyed using organic vegetable matter. All the farmers are based in Cornwall are paid properly for their fleece and are very supportive of the scheme.
Not only does this time honoured method of production result in remarkably beautiful, resilient and exceptionally warm garments but with the process taking place entirely within Cornwall, only a tiny ecological footprint is left behind. If everyone in the world operated as the average UK citizen does, we would need at least three planets to support global consumption. Purdey realises this and in working with Cornish Organic Wool has combined a concern for the environment with the style, function, detail and craftsmanship Purdey is renowned for.
25/02/2008
WINNERS OF THE 2007 PURDEY AWARDS FOR GAME AND CONSERVATION
News, 16th November 2007
GREY PARTRIDGE PROJECT WINS TOP
PURDEY CONSERVATION AWARD
The Ratcheugh Grey Partridge Restoration Project, run over 5000 acres of The Duke of Northumberland’s Alnwick Estate, has won the 2007 Purdey Gold Award for Game and Conservation.
The Duke, accompanied by Alnwick head keeper Garry Whitfield and partridge ground keeper Kevan McCaig, were presented with the Purdey Shield, a cheque for £4000, and a Jeroboam of Laurent-Perrier Champagne, by actor and playwright Julian Fellowes at a ceremony in central London last night (Thursday 15th November)
The Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation are run annually by London gunmaker James Purdey & Sons to find the best of the United Kingdom’s game conservation projects, where habitats for wild and reared game birds have been improved and other species of flora and fauna have also benefited.
Richard Purdey, who has been running the Awards since 1999, said the judges had been unanimous in their decision to award the Gold to the Ratcheugh Project. The panel had felt the success and scale of the project was ‘nothing short of incredible’ both in terms of results achieved, and as an example of first class teamwork between the Alnwick Estate, Velcourt Farms, who manage its farming, and the Duke and his keepers who run the renowned Alnwick shoots.
Details of the 2007 results follow:
Gold Award +£4000 + Jeroboam Laurent-Perrier Champagne
Ratcheugh Partridge Restoration Project on the Alnwick Estate
The Judges unanimous decision to make this Gold Award to the Duke of Northumberland’s Ratcheugh Project was driven by its sheer scale, both in terms of the results achieved and as an example of first class teamwork between Alnwick Estate, Velcourt Farms, which manage its farming, and the Duke and his keepers who run the renowned Alnwick shoots.
Richard Purdey said the judges felt the secret of Alnwick’s success was a shared passion by everyone involved in the project to save wild grey partridge from extinction, and a determination to prove that by creating the right environment a sustainable population of
this once ubiquitous game bird can be restored and then successfully live and breed alongside intensive modern farming.
The judges were impressed that many compromises had been made in the farming regime in order to provide adequate field margins, irregular hedge cutting and importantly the agreement by Velcourt not to operate their farm machinery at night, thus preventing disturbance of the growing partridge population.
The project only commenced four years ago when there were just 5 breeding pairs of wild grey partridge. There are now 200 pairs on the 5000 acres now devoted to this project. “This is an extraordinary, exemplary, and most deserving winner” said Richard Purdey.
Silver Award + £2500
Lord Gerald Fitzalan Howard’s Carlton Towers Estate.
The Carlton Towers Estate conservation project is also devoted to restoring grey partridge, and impressed the judges for the outstanding teamwork evident between owner, Lord Gerald Fitzalan Howard and head keeper, Mr Mark Fitzer, and their inspirational efforts in achieving success with what many would have considered an impossible task.
The 2500 acre estate is situated close to the huge Drax power station, and bordered by hard worked arable farms not necessarily sympathetic to game birds or their conservation. Mark Fitzer’s outstanding achievement has been to persevere successfully at persuading neighbouring farmers to allow hedges to grow, to leave green stubbles, and even the local authority to cut verges and banks in sympathy with the conservation aims. They also encouraged neighbours and local and inner city schoolchildren to visit Carlton Towers to see for themselves, through its rich variety of wildlife, the environmental and ecological benefits of shooting and conservation.
In addition to the growing numbers of wild grey partridge the estate now boasts a pair of hobbys, four pairs of barn owls, flocks of tree sparrows and finches, nesting curlew and lapwing, visiting wild geese, resident water voles and a special area has even been devoted to butterflies. Central to there being 78 pairs of breeding partridge where five years ago there were none, has been Mrs Fitzer’s diligent fostering scheme where she places partridge eggs under broody hens for hatching, then persuades barren pairs of partridges to adopt the chicks and foster them. As her husband Mark puts it ‘There’s a real team feeling about Carlton Towers’. The judges agreed.
Bronze Award + £1000,
The Bulmer family’s 700 acre Bodior Estate in Anglesey, entered by Bodior’s farm manager Frank Llewellyn-Roberts.
With its own rocky shoreline on three sides, distant views of the mountains of North Wales and the Lleyn Peninsula, ancient woods bowed by the prevailing south westerlies blowing in from the Irish Sea, and wild bogs and ponds within the sound of RAF Valley’s jet trainers, Bodior is a paradise for woodcock, wild duck and snipe, complemented by a few reared pheasant.
As a consequence, the estate provides its owners with a delightful small family and friends shoot, and the judge’s were struck by owner Giles Bulmer’s and Frank Llewellyn-Roberts’s vision in the way they have planned and improved these natural habitats to best advantage for wild game. Their efforts to replace conifer plantations with mixed broad leaf trees, creating rides to allow safe shooting of the woodcock which migrate to Bodior in abundance in winter were particularly impressive, and the judges also liked their energetic marketing of the estate’s own game and farm produce through the Bodior farm shop and local restaurants.
Two Special Awards of £750 each:
John Grahams, Chairman of the Dee Wetlands and Wildfowl Management Club on the Wirrall
Robert Birrell, Captain of the Blackburn Syndicate, which shoots near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway.
The Dee Wetlands Club, whose members shoot over some of the finest saltmarshes on the Wirral peninsula, received their Award not only for the positive contribution they are making to local wildlife conservation and for controlling the shooting over this marshland at sustainable levels, but for their encouragement of newcomers to wildfowling, and the high standard of the Club’s education and training programmes for new members.
The Blackburn Syndicate, a non commercial farmers shoot run over 3000 acres of neighbouring farms near Castle Douglas, impressed the judges by its members’ exemplary habitat management, with well placed game crops and the introduction of small ponds, hedgerows and mixed hardwood plantations to encourage a notable variety of wildlife as well as gamebirds. The latter include snipe, woodcock, and wild duck alongside modest numbers of reared pheasant and redleg partridge.
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NOTES
The annual Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation aim to encourage imaginative conservation projects which improve habitats for both reared and wild game birds, and which in the process benefit other species of flora and fauna and enhance enjoyment of the shoot and of the countryside.
Last year’s winner of the Purdey Award for of Game and Conservation wasCol Johnny Clavering, OBE, MC, and his shoot and farming partner Mr Nicholas Timpson, owners of Seggiebank Farm near Kinross.
The Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation is now in its ninth year, the sponsorship having been taken over in 1999 by James Purdey & Sons from Laurent-Perrier Champagne who initiated the annual competition in 1985. The Panel of Judges is chaired by the Marquess of Douro, and the competition is organised and run by Richard Purdey, in close cooperation with The Game Conservancy Trust. Other members of the judging panel include The Duchess of Devonshire, Roy Green, David Clark and John Humphreys.
James Purdey & Sons Ltd has been a member of the Richemont Group of companies since 1994.
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20/11/2007
JAMES PURDEY & SONS LAUNCH ONLINE SHOPPING
A brand new e-commerce website which for the first time allows customers to buy exclusive Purdey country wear online has been launched today by James Purdey & Sons, the world renowned gun and rifle makers. Browse the items online at www.purdey.com or www.purdeyclothing.com.
The Purdey online shop offers an extensive range of elegant and distinctly English men's and women's clothing, accessories and gifts using the exquisite craftsmanship and innovation associated with Purdey.
Purdey will deliver to the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man), Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. The USA and Switzerland will follow shortly.
Richard Purdey, Chairman of James Purdey & Sons said:
"There was clearly a marketplace for our products to be available online and we are delighted to now have a shopping facility for the convenience of our existing customers, and of course to introduce the Purdey range to a new clientele."
For further information please contact:
Brian MacLaurin Associates on + 44(0) 208 323 8017 or email rania@brianmaclaurin.com
21/08/2006
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