Abbotsbury Swannery (Dorset)

“The world’s only managed colony of nesting Mute Swans…A relaxing and calm place, a visit to the Swannery is a special and unique experience. ” A beautiful place that surely has nothing to do with hunting with hounds? Sadly, it does. The Swannery is open to the public from “mid-March until November”, which perhaps explains why owner Charlotte Townshend – who inherited the Ilchester Estate which includes the Swannery in the 1990s – has regularly allowed the Cattistock Hunt to meet at such a ‘relaxing and calm’ place during the winter when the public wouldn’t be around. That and the fact she is avowedly pro-hunt and former master of the self-same Cattistock of course. We’ve listed more instances below detailed by North Dorset Hunt Sabs amongst others, but for example Weymouth Animal Rights found the Cattistock at the Swannery in December 2024, and along with Two Counties Hunt Sabs stopped any kills taking place: they then had the pleasure of watching the hunt take a “march of shame” back to the Swannery to pack up again in the late afternoon. Abbotsbury Swannery is part of Chesil and Fleet Nature Reserve, which is managed by The Swannery Trust (charity number 104074) whose charitable aims are the “promotion, preservation and protection of swans and other such species of birds that are rare or threatened together with the conservation of Chesil Beach and the Fleet Lagoon”. No mention in the charity’s aims of ‘supporting hunting with hounds’, which is surely grounds for charitable revocation as a conflict of interest (see petition link below)? It’s worth adding that the Townshends also own grouse moors in Cumbria, where – according to Natural England data – the shotgun pellet-riddled bodies of two ‘brood meddled’ Hen Harriers were found in 2023.