Fitzwilliam Wentworth Estate (S.Yorks)

“The Fitzwilliam Wentworth Estate is a diverse rural estate centred on Wentworth village… in South Yorkshire. The Estate has an immense history and a wealth of heritage, attractive landscapes and abundant wildlife.” The Wentworth Estate website bigs up the ‘conservation’ work it does saying that it “is keenly aware of its responsibilities and obligations regarding conservation…this includes…maintaining native biodiversity and features of special environmental, social and cultural interest. Today significant areas of the Estate are recognised with local, national and European scale environmental designations.” That’s great, right? Well, yes, it would be if it wasn’t for the fact – which isn’t mentioned on the website – the Estate says on ShootMart that it has the “Best Shooting in South Yorkshire”, has “over 15 main drives and a number of small drives which can be very testing”, and that they “release approximately 50% partridge and 50% pheasant with some duck drives.” It’s staggering how the shooting industry has normalised the killing of large numbers of non-native, introduced birds and sets that aside when it talks about ‘conservation’. Some of us, of course, are not remotely impressed. Just to rub visitors’ noses further into the dirt, the estate is owned by Philip Naylor-Leyland, who runs the Fitzwilliam Land Company which owns the infamous Fitzwilliam Hunt.  The communities of wildlife abusers are truly entangled…