Bereleigh Estate (Hants)

Home to the Tyrwhitt-Drake family, who run several businesses on the Estate including the Kabin Company, Bereleigh apparently “lies gracefully in beautiful, undulating Hampshire countryside within the South Downs National Park.” Which means of course that it is “the perfect location for country sports, farming, entertaining and events.” Country sports is of course a euphemism for shooting and hunting, and owner William Tyrwhitt-Drake said in an interview in 2018: “I started shooting when I was 12. I rebelled against sitting on an uncomfortable pony and going fox hunting, which is what my family probably wanted me to do.” He is perhaps best noted for a long-running legal case brought by one of the estate’s neighbours who complained about disturbance from the shoot: much to the satisfaction of the hunting and shooting lobbyists the Countryside Alliance (CA) the judge in the case ruled against the plaintiff, the CA thanking the Tyrhwitt-Drakes saying “Everyone who shoots is in their debt.” After all, what good is all that countryside if you can’t make some noise shooting birds in it? Edward, the son of Bereleigh patriarch William, runs the huge pheasant shoot on the estate under the name of Bereleigh Sporting. Unsurprisingly, Bereleigh hosts ‘Hampshire Countryside Day – Celebrating the best of the countryside in Hampshire’, whose logo is pretty much what you’d expect of an event promoting hunting and shooting and is held by people who really do seem to believe that killing things is what the countryside is for. On the hunt front, invited packs for the September 2024 ‘Day’ included the Hampshire Hunt, the Hursley Hambledon, the Sandhurst & Aldershot Beagles, and the Palmer, Marlborough & Clinkard Meon Beagles. The ‘Coursing Crew’ ran a Lurcher and Terrier Show with the criterion that “Exhibitors must be members of a working terrier club. Terrier breed club or be a hunt terrier man, gamekeeper or pest controller at the time of entry.” The event was promoted by Visit Hampshire, but those of us who see what’s left of the countryside as a place for wildlife to live will surely want to give this estate a miss…