As the ‘Glorious Twelfth’ looms, Steve Brown takes a look at the history of grouse shooting in the High Peak.
IT WAS QUEEN VICTORIA and her love of Balmoral which popularised the sport of grouse shooting in Britain’s uplands during the latter part of the nineteenth century. While hunting had always been a traditional countryside pursuit, the great skill needed to shoot birds flying low over the moors at over 80 mph, which were good to eat afterwards, on a managed estate with suitable accommodation nearby led to a boom in the sport with demand often outstripping supply, even to this day…