December Profile: Amanda Harris-Lea
Amanda Harris-Lea grew up on a sporting farm in Shropshire, where the landscape had been laid out in the early 1950s according to the prescriptions of what was then the Eley Game Advisory Service, now the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. This grounding sowed the seeds for an early career in game cover sales, agri-environmental scheme design, and sporting estate management when she set up her own rural practice.
Described by one of her contemporaries as “wearing a pair of wellies like she means it,” there couldn’t be a more fitting accolade for Amanda.
Amanda began her shooting career 40 years ago, working the family’s cocker spaniel on local shoots. “I was never encouraged to shoot, as it wasn’t deemed very ladylike – so I settled for gundogs and never really took to shotgun shooting, despite having a go when I was at agricultural college.”
Over the next 40 years, alongside her education and day job, Amanda has had a rich, multi-faceted career in the shooting industry, which includes:
Training and breeding gundogs – specialising in retraining “rejects”
Breeding and rearing game birds for release and breeding
Hosting shooting parties
Beating
Picking up
Running the game carts
Dressing and cooking game
In 2009, Amanda’s divorce facilitated a fresh start in West Wales and with that, a career change into teaching. “When I moved to Wales, I sold everything I had in Shropshire and took the first job I thought I could do – managing a horticultural and agricultural project for adults with mental health and substance abuse. A fresh start on many levels.”
She has maintained her links with mental health and continues to volunteer for rural mental health charities. She is currently ensconced as the “Entrepreneur in Residence” at her local college, helping young people take their first steps into business.
It was during a return visit to Shropshire in 2015, while out on a shoot with friends, that Foxy Pheasant was born.
“2015 was tough. Over a 12-week period, we said our final goodbyes to my father after a brave battle with bowel cancer, I was diagnosed with irreversible spinal injuries, and our beautiful youngest daughter was born. I was a grieving new mum with severely limited mobility.”
Amanda experienced a long period of enforced rest, which allowed her to see the countryside from a new perspective.
“I saw the field with renewed vigour. The sights, the smells, the light had all just been part of the lifestyle. It’s not until that lifestyle is taken away from you that you really appreciate what you have.”
With this refreshed vision, Amanda began to truly notice the colours of the game birds around her. From this glorious afternoon of epiphany, a more creative path beckoned; something better suited to a middle-aged mum living in a remote location. She carved a niche for herself that combined her artistic talents with her passion for the sporting country life. Together with her dogged determination to use her previous experiences in rural enterprise, she ensured the creation of a design business that was truly unique.
“Apart from a GCSE in Art, I had zero qualifications to start an interiors company. It then morphed into an interiors fabric design brand, which became a clothing company, and is now a clothing and home interiors fabric company.”
Amanda continues to work with her gundogs and loves sharing her world with her two daughters, Charlotte and Pippa.
Amanda’s passion for the countryside is unrelenting. She has recently taken on the role of Chair for GWCT West Wales, sits on cross-party groups in the Welsh Assembly, and works with various organisations advocating for the countryside.
