BDS Region - East Mercia

Following a welcome and introduction to Dave Goffin (BDS Training Manager) and David Kenyon (BDS Area Director - England and Wales) and an explanation of the programme by Hugh Davis, the meeting was addressed by Naomi Sykes, branch Member and archeologist from Nottingham University, where her specialism is the examination and interpretation of animal remains and in particular deer remains from the Middle Ages.

Naomi described how the inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon England hunted deer by driving them with dogs into nets. However, after the Norman Conquest the pattern of hunting appears to have changed with the emergence of Royal Forests such as "The New Forest" and Knaresborough in Yorkshire. The Normans also brought bows and arrows, a weapon that Harold's Army did not have at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Thus the tools of hunting changed over a short period of time.

This seems to coincide with a reduction in the numbers of deer bones found in village spoil heaps and an increase in the numbers of bones found in the heaps associated with the castles and other dwellings of the privileged. In other words, venison clearly moved up market!

1066 also brought new practices related to the gralloch or "unmaking" and the distribution of venison, the best hunter of the day receiving a right shoulder while the park keeper or head forester would get the other shoulder. This had the result that the spoil heaps of the nobility rarely contained the fore bones of deer, while a few left sided shoulder bones were found around the lodges of old forests where there may have been a more stable residence compared with the almost nomadic existence of the Hunters themselves.

The Normans can also be attributed with the establishment of fallow deer, a species that they introduced to Britain from the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. However, the Romans also appeared to have introduced the species at an earlier date. Naomi described her work at Fishbourne Roman Palace in the south of England, a very large roman villa with evidence for a fallow deer park. Two complete fallow jaw bones have been recovered from this site. Through isotope analysis of the teeth, one of the animals was proven to have been imported whilst the second was bred at the Palace. More details of this work will be published in the next issue of Deer.

The Extraordinary General meeting

Hugh Davis explained the circumstances which had precipitated the call for the meeting and went on to describe the nature of the Society's branch system. The branches are not independent units but an integral part of the society, being groups of like-minded individuals whose interests in Deer range across the whole of the Society's activities.

Consequently the branches are able, and indeed encouraged, to work with and support each other's activities.

The Branch members are required to elect a committee from the members present and also those individuals who, although absent, had indicated a willingness to serve on a new committee. He described the roles - Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer as the key positions and the options for support - Newsletter production, Training, Range Control Officers, Agricultural and game fair shows throughout the Branch Area.

Of those present three members offered themselves for election -

Mike Watkins - Rugby

Richard Hezlit - Grantham

Dave Hancox - Stockton Warwickshire

Peter Kay - Absent

Lee Coccozza Absent

Dave Mullen - Absent

All were unanimously nominated from the floor to form a new committee.

Hugh Davis undertook to liaise with all the above to arrange a meeting in the near future for officers to be formally elected to nominated positions.

Dave Goffin and David Kenyon then led a question and answer session which covered wide ranging issues from the despatch of deer involved in RTA collisions, availability of Qualified RCO's within the Branch - There are five and thus there is no hindrance to any branch shooting activities, save the Society's standing instructions to branches.

David Kenyon described the Society's work in supporting the police and other bodies in dealing with wildlife crime and showed the Society's new posters, the newly launched BDS branded sports wear, and the importance of the Society's role in educating the public about deer welfare.

The meeting closed at 2200 approximately, although several members remained in the meeting room discussing the evening and the potential future of the branch.

Hugh Davis