David Sandford, owner of the Portloughan Shoot in County Down, was presented with the 2016 Purdey Gold Award trophy and £5,000, in recognition of his exceptional vision and leadership in successfully re-establishing a sustainable population of wild grey partridge on 2,000 acres of farmland in County Down, where none had existed for decades.
In second place with the 2016 Purdey Silver Award and £3,000 is Richard Wills, owner of the Portway Estate at Longparish, Hampshire, where an ambitious wild grey partridge restoration project has been in full swing for eight years alongside his well established and very highly regarded wild pheasant and red-leg partridge shoot.
In third place, winning the 2016 Bronze Award and £2,000, is Kelly Partridge Hicks, who has managed and developed an exemplary conservation driven commercial shoot with her husband Stephen since they acquired Little Haugh Hall and its 65 acre farm, near Bury St. Edmunds, in 1997.
