As the game season gets into full swing, and restaurants across the county offer a hearty selection of rich and varied quarry, we joined Malcolm Partridge, head gamekeeper of Grantham’s Belvoir Estate, for a morning’s photo shoot on the estate followed by a demonstration of just how good its produce can be, courtesy of Belvoir’s very own gastropub, the Manners Arms

To all country folk, nothing but nothing screams winter like the scent of cordite in the chilly air, the crack of a shotgun cartridge or a nip of brandy on a day spent shooting with friends. It’s especially rewarding when followed by a gamey supper and a hearty slug of red wine afterwards. If ever two pleasures went hand in hand, shooting and eating game so perfectly complement one another that this month we were determined to make the most of both by welcoming the marriage by the Belvoir Estate of shooting days and special game evenings at the Duke and Duchess of Rutland’s gastropub, the Manners Arms.
If ever there was an ironic name for the gamekeeper of a country estate, Malcolm Partridge, head gamekeeper of the Belvoir Estate, wins gold especially since, when our cameras came out this month, we were literally shooting partridge… but gentle teasing aside, Malcolm and his four strong team must be the most skilled, professional and amenable members of their profession, and are brilliant advocates of a centuries old career which yields stunning food that anyone in Lincolnshire can sample this season.

Raised in the Vale of Belvoir and following in the footsteps of his father, who was the gamekeeper of a neighbouring estate, Malcolm is responsible for over 10,000 acres and his remit these days includes many more duties than those of his father before him, with a dearth of new health and safety legislation and the new culture of shooting days as corporate entertainment and tourism, the result of diversification in the mid 1990s.

Town and city dwellers still cling on to the prejudice that shooting is an elitist activity detrimental to the numbers of wildlife on large country estates, but longitudinal studies have shown that in countryside managed by gamekeepers, the number of animals is proliferated rather than obliterated, and when one factors in the fact that shooting and country sports are worth £1bn annually and employ over 70,000, making an effort to promote and sustain the industry seems to us to be common sense rather than mere nostalgia.

Shooting parties have visited the estate for over a decade now, but with the renovation of Belvoir’s Manners Arms earlier this year, there’s a double reason for attending a driven shoot on the estate –