About the Essex Game Guild
This is a long-established club promoting a love of countryside, wildlife, field sports and conservation in Essex. We aim to widen the appeal of countryside activities and help young people get into country pursuits and offer two key areas for support:
- Mentoring or work experience for young people who wish to gain experience of the running of a shoot, a game farm, meat preparation or initial shooting tuition. Arranged with our members.
- The “Futures Fund” provides support with the cost of a course or training in game preservation, conservation or land management. This could range from a meat hygiene course to a college course in gamekeeping. Find a course an apply for some help from us! (Applications will be considered by a panel and support offered on individual merits following interview.)
We also hold two meets a year for members to learn more about our sport and how local organisations run their shoots. The summer meet visits an organisation such as a shoot and the Autumn meet consists of a talk by industry professionals.
History of the Guild
In 1897 a meeting took place at the Great Eastern Hotel, Liverpool Street. The chairman was Mr A W Ruggles-Brice, and the committee were other major Essex landowners. The momentous subject under discussion was how to prevent the smuggling of partridge eggs to London. So, the Essex Poaching Prevention Society was formed. The minutes of the meeting, list the local committees which were setup; some of whose descendants are still members of the Guild. Letters were subsequently sent to police stations and station masters setting out the society, along with a list of committee members, no doubt to give the letters extra authority.
The minutes of the meeting which took place a year later reported success. Four Convictions, three for possession of eggs and one for poaching. Fines of between £1 and £2 being imposed. At the time there were 91 members. In 1903 two ‘detectives’ were employed, for 6 weeks at a cost of £25, 3000 reward posters were produced and advertisements placed in local papers. In 1924 the name was changed to the Essex Game Guild, though the aims of the guild remained the same up until 1942 when it was disbanded for the duration of the war.
The guild was not reformed until 1955. The smuggling of eggs was clearly no longer a problem and discussions were held to decide what form the guild should take. From this meeting the current Essex Game Guild evolved. There are currently over 120 members. They include both town and country dwellers, landowners, and gamekeepers,
in fact from may walks of life, but all with a common interest in the countryside and field sports.
In 2014 a full range of documents about the Guild’s long history was deposited with the Essex Records Office.
If you would like to print out this history please click the link below: