The League Against Cruel Sports has stopped shooting at a Bettws Hall shoot.
The Welsh shoot operator leases the 750-acre estate at Gregynog Hall in Newtown, Powys, where shooting has taken place for centuries. The Davies family gifted the estate to the university of Wales. In 2018, the League Against Cruel Sports obtained via a freedom of information request to reveal the news that 57,000 pheasants have been released there in recent years. It called on the university to cancel the lease with Bettws Hall. At first, the university said only it will ‘review the arrangements’ at Gregynog Hall.
Gregynog Hall shoot is a striking, grade 1 listed Jacobean-style mansion, originally the seat of the Blayney Family. This shoot is famed for challenging driven pheasants in beautiful rolling valleys. Drives such as ‘the Middle’ have a loyal following of guns from both the UK and overseas.
The university struggles to make money out of Gregynog Hall and there are fears that the loss of pheasant shooting will lead to the collapse of the estate. The hall operates as a historic house conference centre and now wedding venue, offering tourist accommodation for visitors to the gardens and grounds. The university is currently establishing the house as an independent charitable trust.
Pheasant shooting will not take place in the coming season at Gregynog. The site, owned by the University of Wales, has been subject to a campaign by the League Against Cruel Sports.
