In this series focusing on the region’s businesses and entrepreneurs, Jonathan Thompson from Thrings visits Lord Montagu’s official falconer
As a seven-year-old boy in Tottenham, Paul Manning found himself intrigued by a very unusual news story.
“London Zoo had a golden eagle called Goldie, which escaped,” Paul remembers. “For about a week, the papers were full of tales of old ladies in tweed fending Goldie off from attacking their Jack Russells in Regent’s Park. And I just became obsessed with birds of prey.”
That obsession became a hobby and, eventually, a full-time job, taking Paul from those North London schooldays to the ancient cloisters and grounds of Beaulieu Abbey, where he now serves as official falconer to Lord Montagu.
Between then and now, Paul had a career in media buying for television, but would devote his holidays to learning his craft – especially interested in hunting and the 600-year-old history of falconry.
With a male Gryfalcon, known properly as a ‘gyrkin’, pecking at his leather glove, Paul describes falconry as a great leveller because, whether you are a pauper or a King, these powerful birds react in exactly the same way.
Accurately speaking, all falcons are female, and many of the world’s leading falconers are women – perhaps because men are more likely to want to dominate the bird in a way that they see as a threat.
“These birds don't like you, they don't want you to like them, they don't need you, they are indifferent – they tolerate you,” Paul says with typical bluntness.
“That’s why some of the most suspicious and powerful men in history ranked this as their favourite sport. For Edward I, Henry IV, Richard the Lionheart and many more, falconry gave them the opposite of power.
“What you get out of it is down to you, not your power and status. It’s completely pure – you have to serve them.”
Paul presents to the public at Beaulieu over Whitsun, the summer holidays and autumn half term, but distances himself from the country show style of falconry demonstration – for him, it’s all about education and preserving history.
Alongside his role at Beaulieu, Paul and his wife Mandy run Amews Falconry, which runs corporate and team-building events alongside sessions for individuals and groups.
They also work with autistic children and those who have been excluded from school – a part of the job Paul finds immensely rewarding.
““I get masses out of that – I absolutely love it,” he says. “We’ll have a debrief with the teacher afterwards and they'll tell us that was a very difficult, out of control child – but they will have been wonderful around the birds.
“I’m very fortunate that I can make a living without compromising what I care about. Very few people are lucky enough to find that. I count my blessings every day that I can do the thing I love.”
Jonathan Thompson is Senior Associate in the Agricultural team at the Romsey office of the law firm Thrings.