A Lesson From An Old Keeper

Fast forward a few years, and I was up on the Shropshire-Staffordshire border, spending time with a gamekeeper named Mac. He was a proper countryman, full of wisdom, and always moaning at me about using that silly old airgun, instead of a 22 rimfire. Over cups of Yorkshire tea, he gave me tips on everything from trapping mink to ferreting.

One day, he told me about some signs he’d put up around his village: Moles Cleared or Your Money Back. He said the phone hadn’t stopped ringing, and he was making a decent bit of money trapping moles in between his usual gamekeeping duties. That got me thinking.

I went straight to a local printer and had my own signs made A4-sized, with the same message and a little cartoon mole carrying a stick over his shoulder, looking like he was moving out. With my good mate Matthew, we went around the posher villages up the Vale and cable-tied the signs along the roads.

Little did I know that this would be the start of something big.....

Matthew