Dedicated followers of fashion as ladies take to shooting

SHOOTING has long been a male-dominated preserve, offering a chance to take a gun out in the countryside before settling down to an often raucous evening of beer and fine food.

But it seems the traditional shooting party in Yorkshire is taking on a far more feminine side – as well as attracting interest from as far afield as the Middle East and Las Vegas.

As the Glorious Twelfth marks the start of the annual shooting season today, businesses have revealed more and more women are picking up guns and heading onto Yorkshire's moorland to track grouse and pheasants.

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And it is not only women who are being lured into taking up the sport, with Middle Eastern businessmen as well as property developers and casino owners from America's epicentre of entertainment, Las Vegas, travelling to North Yorkshire.

Leading figures from the world of film and music, including James Bond actor Daniel Craig, are understood to have visited North Yorkshire as country life enjoys a resurgence.

Among the businesses which are benefiting is Carter's Countrywear in Helmsley, which now provides a dedicated line of clothing for women.

Every season a different tweed is chosen, with purple picked this year to match the colour of the famous heather on the North York Moors.

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The shop is stocking ladies' jackets for 295 and boots for 250, while a skirt can be picked up for 95 and the outfit topped off with a 45 hat and a 195 waistcoat. But Jeremy Shaw, whose mother, Betty Carter, launched the shop in Huddersfield in 1977 before the business moved to Helmsley 25 years ago, stressed that an outfit can be bought for as little as 200 showing the sport is not simply the preserve of the upper classes.

"There has been a real culture shift in recent years as more and more ladies have decided they want to try shooting, and we introduced clothing specifically for women about three years ago.

" There is a whole spectrum of people who are now enjoying shooting, and many of our customers are aged in their 20s and 30s – it is certainly not solely middle-aged men who head out on shooting parties."

Mr Shaw's wife, Emma, has been shooting for the past decade, in spite of being a vegetarian.

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Mother-of-two Mrs Shaw, 40, a clinical psychologist, said: "It is just great fun being outdoors, and you meet so many different people. A lot of women like dressing up in the clothes, which are a lot more feminine now than perhaps before.

"I have made female friends from as far afield as Berkshire and Oxfordshire through shooting, and we have been on all-women shoots as well.

"And if I ever ate meat again, it would have to be game as the birds have such a wonderful life on the moors."

One of the prime destinations for shooting parties to stay is the Feversham Arms, which is also in Helmsley, and a group of Las Vegas businessmen have already booked rooms for a return visit this autumn. Hotel managing director Simon Rhatigan said: "It is much less socially acceptable for a man to simply disappear off on his own for a weekend to meet up with a load of other blokes to go on something like a shoot. We have seen a lot more couples booking rooms as they organise a weekend away with friends or to even do business.

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"And it may even be the woman who sets up the business meeting and brings her husband along for the shoot."

The shooting season has become a hugely important part of Yorkshire's tourism industry, which generates 6.5bn every year and accounts for seven per cent of the regional economy.

The Moorland Association published research yesterday that revealed grouse moor owners in England and Wales are spending 52.5m every year on managing their estates, bringing a further huge economic boost.

More than half of the 149 moorlands in England and Wales are in the Yorkshire Dales, Nidderdale, the North York Moors and South Yorkshire.

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Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust director of research Professor Nick Sotherton said: "Our studies confirm that grouse shooting makes a huge contribution to nature conservation in the uplands and the financial investment in moorland management for grouse provides a highly sustainable form of land use."

Birds thrived in harsh winter

The red grouse season is on course to be a record-breaker with high numbers of the wild birds on the moors in spite of the harsh winter, researchers revealed.

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust confirmed yesterday that the birds had thrived in long snowy spells last winter.

Researchers for the trust are putting the high density of grouse, which live on heather moorland in the North of England and Scotland, down to good breeding success following increases last year.

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In northern England, wild birds entered this year's breeding season in good condition after a cold winter in 2008/2009 led to low numbers of worm parasites infecting grouse. Thriving numbers will boost the shooting, which helps moorland conservation.