Game for a pair of awards (From Gazette & Herald)

Game for a pair of awards

GAMEKEEPER Michael Richardson is to receive two long service awards.

The first will be presented at next week's Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate by the president of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, John Henderson, where he will receive an engraved tankard, certificate and medal, and the second at a game fair at Harewood House on August 1.

Mr Richardson was initially a gamekeeper at Newburgh Priory before working for nearly 40 years at Lord Feversham's Duncombe Park Estate at Helmsley.

Although he officially retired three years ago, Mr Richardson, 68, of High Street, Helmsley, still works part-time on the estate's 12,000 acres along with seven other gamekeepers.

His main job today is helping to rear pheasants on Bransdale moor, beating and loading guns for shooting parties. He says he has seen many changes over the years, most notably incubators replacing brooding hens for hatching pheasant eggs, and quad bikes to deliver feed around the moors for the birds.

"We used to walk miles feeding the pheasants" said Mr Richardson. "The job has been made so much easier with quad bikes."

He recalls how there used to be rows of coops for hens and their clutches of young pheasant chicks in front of Duncombe Park house.

"We used to tour the area going to farm to find brooding hens to hatch the eggs" said Mr Richardson.

When he is not working on the estate, Rievaulx-born Mr Richardson spends his time gardening and playing for Helmsley Bowling Club.

His youngest son, Stephen, followed in his footsteps after being trained at Duncombe Park, and is now at Newby Hall, while another son, Colin, is a sergeant in the Royal Signals in Belgium, while daughter Angela lives in Helmsley.

Updated: 11:51 Wednesday, July 02, 2003