I WAS rummaging in my loft the other day, looking for something I’d mislaid years ago, and I stumbled across an old container stuffed with ancient videos. This was a real Aladdin’s Cave and no mistake. They had not seen the light of day for well over ten years and contained some real gems including a couple of the late Oliver Kite’s Kites Country.

A few of the older readers might remember these from the 1960s. They were excellent programmes, sadly many only in black and white, but brilliantly presented and fascinating to watch.

Like me, Ollie Kite’s thoughts always seemed to turn to food. He was obviously a chap enjoyed his grub but that is where the similarity unfortunately ends.

My skill with a fly rod is not in the same league as the good Major Kite although my most productive dry fly is his famous Kites Imperial – even when I am at the other end of the line!

What a pity we don’t have rural programmes produced to that standard today!

SKILLS

Oliver Kite was a protégé of the much missed Jack Hargreaves and there were also a few of the great man’s shows in the same box.

These were not today’s digital enhanced version but ancient copies that somebody had given me years back. Never needing an excuse to watch Out of Town, that evening I enjoyed a selection and it set me thinking.

Jack featured a number of tradesmen demonstrating their skills in his programmes, including a chap making barrels and a saddler producing a bridle, which obviously included them using all the many specialist tools essential to their trade.

It set me wondering about gamekeeping. Although we have a long history, what unique tools of the trade do we have? Well, not many seem to be the answer!

A trapping hammer is the only real candidate. These are very useful tools and I was less than pleased when my old one was stolen from a garden shed in Surrey back in the 1990s. It probably ended up in a car boot sale somewhere but what the buyer thought it was used for is anybody’s guess.

Luckily I managed to buy a replacement from a retired keeper recently. In fact, it is in better nick than my original version and, although it had done 50 years hard work, it still has the original handle made by that much lamented firm Youngs of Misterton, based on the Somerset/Dorset border. They don’t make them like that in todays throw away society.

MAGIC BOX

What else is lurking in my toolbox?

Well, I always carry some netting pliers and special rings for repairs to release pens. I am not sure if these are unique to game preservation or used in other parts of agriculture but they are a valuable piece of kit.

Never leave anything until tomorrow that you can mend today is a creed the importance of which was brought home to me this year. I noticed a small join between two pieces of netting had worked loose but I put it off until I had more time. Within hours a poult had wedged itself between the offending bits and died – a very painful lesson learned.

Other tools I always take with me on my daily rounds include a claw hammer; staples; nails; heavy duty wire cutters for freeing non-target species from snares; parachute cord; screwdrivers; electric fencing wire and insulators; one or two plumbing bits for my new nipple drinkers; a notebook and pencil; a folding saw; a billhook and sharpening stone; a small Drival Fencer unit with batteries; extra Fenn traps and snares; a copper headed hammer for knocking in snare pegs; a folding shovel, and that really essential item – lots of electrical ties.

With the above I can often do small repairs on the spot, which is useful if you are a long way from base.

A while ago in The Countryman’s Weekly I wrote about my ‘Magic Box,’ a plastic Tupperware container stuffed with a spare knife; a lighter; a torch; a first aid kit; surgical gloves, and even a handful of extra cartridges and air rifle pellets.

I still don’t leave home without it as it takes up very little space and goes easily into the pick-up or the mule, which I increasingly use these days for moving stuff around my ground.

Most of the above are not designed exclusively for game keeping and I guess many readers will have other suggestions. If you do write to the letters page of The Countryman’s Weekly sop we can benefit from them.