RXW35

November 05, 2021

Our 2nd and final Rural Week of 2021 again in glorious Devon sunshine (something about the sun and the righteous..?!) saw us welcome 9 service leavers and veterans (HighGrounders) including 4 Royal Marines and 2 ladies to Bicton on Sunday 31st October.

As usual Chris Shepherd had organised a timetable jam packed with interesting visits and subject matter experts, all keen to sell their particular area of the land-based sector to our HighGrounders with passion and endless knowledge.

In addition to our timetable, we also had to fit in a visit from Adam Henson and his crew to film a feature about the route from military life into Agriculture for the Remembrance Sunday edition of Countryfile – you can see the pictures here!

Sadly CV-19 prevented Robert Honan a member of our Development Board who is the Estate Manager at Ascott Park from attending in person to give his presentation about his transition from the Army to Estate Management, but as we are all now so accustomed to Zoom, the day was saved.

As always we thank our presenters and hosts Steve from BALI John and Tom from Clinton Devon Estates, Toby from RSPB, Josh from Forestry England, Debbie from South Yeo Farm West, Nick from The Outdoors Group and Phil from Sampson Hall for their time, knowledge and enthusiasm, all so freely given and special mention to Zoe Elliott from Careers in Racing who made the trip to Bicton, and to Tom Rich who hosted Chris and the team at Sir Harry Studholme’s estate Devon Gardens Trust for the first time.

An action packed week but the sunshine definitely helped, and the response to the feature on Countryfile was
fantastic so a big thank-you to everyone who agreed to be interviewed and put so much work into making it such a success.

Next year we hope to run a full Rural Weeks programme as we continue with Life beyond the military – Outdoors.

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