The sixth in our catalogue of countryside harassment.

The Bed & Breakfast Owner:

A few years ago my wife and I decided to buy a ‘bed and breakfast’ in a country village. At first all went well and we received a warm welcome and did a decent trade. The surrounding countryside was beautiful and we attracted a lot of walkers and photographers. When the local pub/hotel shut we started doing evening meals as we were a distance from anywhere else where people could eat. One afternoon the local gamekeeper turned up, barged into the kitchen where my wife was cooking the evening meal and shouted at her that we would have to “get rid of” two guests. The husband of the couple had apparently been taking photographs when they were walking up on the moors. My wife asked him to calm down and explain what the problem was. He continued to shout. I heard the commotion from my office and went to see what was happening. As my wife was clearly distressed and his tirade was continuing I asked him to leave which he did eventually saying again that we would have to “get rid” of the guests or we would “be sorry”.

When the guests returned they were very upset. They were a retired couple and had been shocked and scared by the response to their taking photographs. They had apparently been photographing the view from a path which is a public right of way when they were approached by the keeper, screamed at and told to get off ‘his’ moor. They showed us the photographs and were very concerned that they might have done something wrong. We assured them that they had not but they terminated their stay early and left the next morning. They have not booked again.

Immediately afterwards we had a number of dire reviews on internet sites none of them from real customers. We also suddenly had a huge increase in the number of ‘no shows’ where bookings had been made by phone or internet. We had to start requesting a deposit with bookings from customers we did not know.

We now have a number of incidents when guests are unable to get their cars out of the car park at the side of the house as the gate has been blocked by estate vehicles. This results in one of us or one of the guests having to go in search of the driver to move it. The blocking of the gate never lasts long enough to make it worth calling the police who have a long way to come, if they come at all, but long enough to seriously inconvenience our guests.

On three occasions we have had shot foxes left hanging over the wall at the front of the house directly in view of the dining room. We caught the gamekeeper on the security camera we installed after the first two dead fox incidents leaving the third dead fox on the wall. This was reported to the police who eventually spoke to him. He apparently admitted to leaving one fox “to pick up later” but denied having anything to do with the others.

Not long after this the guts of an animal, possibly a rabbit or hare were stuffed through the letterbox during the night and were lying on the mat to greet our guests when they came down for breakfast. Whoever stuffed the animal guts through the letterbox approached the house from the side avoiding the security camera. We have since installed an additional camera.

Moorland communities certainly need protection but from the activities of some of their members not conservationists.