The Ruralist | 10 highlights from 2024

Behind the scenes at a point-to-point training yard  

In many ways, the atmosphere of a day’s point-to-pointing reflects how we feel in spring. We reach for our layers, not knowing what the day will throw at us, and embrace the bustle of activity and anticipation. 

Behind the tailgate picnics with friends and the hopeful flutters on horses we like the look of, though, are the people whose passion keeps pointing – a true gem of a country pursuit – alive and well. 

In February, we visited point-to-point racehorse trainer Kelly Morgan at her stables in Leicestershire where we learnt all about how she first got into training racehorses, what a typical day at her stables looks like, and how point-to-pointing differs to other types of horse racing.  

You can read the article here or watch the video on YouTube.  

To Cheltenham – with Harry Skelton  

Carrying on with the racing theme, the Cheltenham Festival beckoned. We visited Cheltenham Racecourse for day one – Champions Day – keen to document and highlight the features that combine to make the jewel in racing’s crown what it is.  

In 2024, Friday 15 March marked the hundredth anniversary of the Cheltenham Gold Cup – an iconic event in National Hunt Racing, for which tens of thousands of people descend on the 350-acre patch of the Cotswolds to celebrate the UK’s finest horses, jockeys and trainers.  

Among those people was Harry Skelton. No stranger to Cheltenham Festival, Harry enjoyed an incredible few days, winning four races. Only a few weeks before, he’d welcomed us to his brother Dan’s training yard. We had the chance to sit down and ask him a few questions...  

You can watch the video here.

The magic of a black grouse lek   

To witness one of nature’s great spectacles for the first time was a true highlight of the year. It was mid April when we found ourselves crawling into a hide in the middle of a moor in the North Pennines. It was still dark, and it was cold, but as black turned to blue and dawn approached a cacophony of birdsong began to fill the air.  

Most dominant was the warbling, cooing, bubbling, fizzing and rasping of the black grouse which we could soon see, just a short distance away, shuffling around in their vibrant livery, defending their ‘lekking’ positions with chests held high, in a magnificent display of posturing.  

The experience was quite incredible. You can read more about it, and black grouse, here.

A closer look at an incredible kitchen garden  

It didn’t take us long, on a sun-filled day in May, to decide that Ellie Marrian has the best job…   

As kitchen gardener at Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire, she is tasked with growing fruit and vegetables year-round for the estate’s farm shop, cafes and restaurant.  

From carrots to courgettes, broccoli to beans, and potatoes to pumpkins, the 2.5 acres under Ellie’s watch yields a rich smorgasbord of produce – 4.5 tonnes and 96 varieties, to be precise – and the process is as wholesome as it is inspiring.  

We visited Ellie as the growing season was properly getting underway.   

If you’re interested in growing your own vegetables, this one’s for you. Read the article here or watch the video.

That litter of puppies 

What breed? Dog or bitch? How to find a breeder? Which puppy to pick from a litter? Questions and decisions abound when looking for a puppy, and it’s a big decision that we all want to get right. And that’s exactly why we visited Ben Randall of Beggarbush Gundogs in Herefordshire in the summer, to pick his brains. You can find the answers in this article or this video.

It just so happened that Ben had a litter of six-week-old cocker spaniel puppies that he was able to introduce us to as well. As you can imagine, that went down pretty well on our social media channels...  

Rugby legend Mike Tindall spearheaded our gilet campaign 

Not so long ago, as we looked back on 30 years of Schöffel Country, we realised we’d never really  celebrated our coveted fleece gilet as a standout example of an icon of country life.  

The story, of course, was already written… But who to help us tell it? Who could do the esteemed fleece layer justice?    

It had to be a long-time Schöffel wearer. It had to be someone of prestige with a love of the countryside. And we wanted it to be a person of real substance who had achieved a lot in their chosen field, too.   

Household rugby player Mike Tindall was perfect. We spent the day with Mike and recorded a series of videos – many of which you have likely seen during the autumn months – that allude to the heritage, versatility and construction of our bestselling gilets.  

You can watch the longer YouTube video here.

A day in the life of a beekeeper 

It’s not every day a trip out of the office starts with climbing into a bee suit and slipping on a pair of Marigolds. But that’s exactly what we found ourselves doing in beekeeper Rebecca Beveridge’s kitchen earlier this year. 

Rebecca now has 30 colonies in various locations, but our focus for the day was on the five hives that sat in her garden. We looked at different designs of hives, we discussed the varied roles of the bees as we went, considered where they might be foraging locally, and absorbed an array of astounding facts and figures (did you know, for example, that it takes about 12 bees their whole lives to make one teaspoon of honey?). 

You can read about our visit here, or watch the video on YouTube.

A Michelin-star taste of the countryside 

With its own farm and kitchen garden, a foraging team, a roster of super-passionate chefs, and a unique way of splitting the year into three seasons, The Black Swan at Oldstead has a very special ethos...    

Towards the end of October, we visited the Michelin-starred restaurant in North Yorkshire, spent some time with executive chef Callum Leslie, learnt all about his journey, and gleaned an insight into the incredible things he and his team are doing with ingredients from the surrounding countryside.  

Of particular note was the mind-blowing larder of preserves that the team has built over the years – think pine cone jelly, fir needles, wild garlic buds, rosehips and crab apples sat beside parcels of mushrooms, rosemary, damsons, elderflower, wild rose petals, wood sorrel, brambles (you name it...)   

We took to the streets of London with Britain’s farmers 

On 19 November, farming families from around the UK descended on London as a show of unity and to rally against the proposals recently unveiled in the chancellor’s budget. 

Speakers from across agriculture, television and politics took to a stage as an estimated 13,000 members of the farming community gathered in Westminster late in the morning.  

For more than 30 years, members of the farming community have supported us, so we felt it only right that we stand with them on a day that meant so much to so many.