CountrySlide

Content note: This episode includes discussion of suicide and mental health.

This week, Callum considers building a moth trap, Richard Negus explains the existence of "hyper moth season", and Richard Prideaux admits to a surprisingly strong dislike of small dusty insects.

From there, things drift into some of Britain's stranger countryside folklore. There is the Owlman of Cornwall, Cornish knockers, Hangman's Hill, Black Shuck, the Essex Serpent and the question of why some parts of the country seem to accumulate far more weird stories than others.

Eventually they arrive at the modern rural legend that refuses to disappear: big cats in the British countryside. Were panthers and other exotic cats genuinely released decades ago? Could any still be out there? And if they were, wouldn't one of the country's gamekeepers have found one by now?

Patrons also get the aftershow, featuring an accidental rally stage in an ageing Freelander, lions roaring beside a Suffolk marsh and Callum having a professionally awkward moment while photographing a politician.

Useful links:
The DPJ Foundation
The Farming Community Network
RABI
Samaritans
Butterfly Conservation: How to make your own moth trap
Butterfly Conservation: Finding and recording moths
Support SideCountry

DISCLAIMER
Views are those of individual speakers and do not necessarily represent SideCountry, its presenters, contributors, partners or sponsors. For general information and entertainment only. Laws, seasons, access and guidance change; check official sources, obtain permission and act within your competence.

Are things actually getting worse in the countryside, or are we just noticing what has quietly disappeared?

This week, Richard Prideaux, Richard Negus and Callum McInerney-Riley talk about access to the countryside, disappearing rural services and the difference between visiting rural Britain and actually living in it.

Callum looks back at his earliest memories of fishing and how his relationship with the countryside has changed, while the two Richards compare that with growing up surrounded by rural life. From there, the conversation moves onto village shops, post offices, buses, unreliable postal services and the lack of resilience that comes with living somewhere where everything is spread further apart.Richard Negus then takes the scenic route through rural transport history and arrives at Sutton Hoo, Basil Brown and the question of whether one of Britain's most famous archaeological discoveries would have been quite so easy to make today.

There are also detours into AI, long marriages, old branch lines, tiny trains, men in Lycra and the possibility that the modern countryside has replaced Basil Brown with baboons on Strava.

Richard and Amy will also be at the APF Exhibition at Ragley later this month, so if you spot the hand painted sign, come and say hello.

Links:
Sutton Hoo, National Trust
The story of Sutton Hoo and the 1939 excavation
Royal Family anniversary messages
APF Exhibition 2026
Support SideCountry

DISCLAIMER
Views are those of individual speakers and do not necessarily represent SideCountry, its presenters, contributors, partners or sponsors. For general information and entertainment only. Laws, seasons, access and guidance change; check official sources, obtain permission and act within your competence.

This week the gang try to hold it together, and after Callum’s cardigan, Richard Negus’ suspicious lighting and an unexpected Tim Curry impression, they eventually get onto the question of how children actually learn about the countryside and whether enthusiasm has gone out of fashion.

Callum’s son taking a copy of The Field Junior into school sparks a wider conversation about field sports, conservation and what happens when teachers and parents are themselves increasingly disconnected from rural life. The three Richards - well, two Richards and Callum - talk about Natural History education, grandparents, letting children get muddy, learning where food comes from and whether enthusiasm is being quietly trained out of youngsters.

Along the way there are childhood fishing trips, bird spotting from the car, deer stalking with a three-year-old, wildfowling misery, whistling children, an unexpected meat-and-pest-control tour, and Callum’s ongoing campaign to hand fishing rods to any curious child who happens to wander past.

Essentially: how do you give children a connection to the countryside? Possibly by worrying less, letting them have a go and accepting that somebody is probably going to spill a pint of maggots.

CountrySlide is a podcast that looks at farming, conservation and life in the British countryside.

You can contact us by email on: contact@countryslide.co.uk 

Links
- T-shirts are still available on - store.sidecountry.co.uk
- Sign up to our newsletter - The Rural Register
- SideCountry Network
- Negus' book tour dates can be found here

The Hosts

Richard Negus website
Callum McInerney-Riley website
Richard Prideaux website

Edited and Produced by Amy Green for SideCountry Network

DISCLAIMER
Views are those of individual speakers and do not necessarily represent SideCountry, its presenters, contributors, partners or sponsors. For general information and entertainment only. Laws, seasons, access and guidance change; check official sources, obtain permission and act within your competence.

After a few weeks off, Callum, Negus and Prideaux catch up on their summer activities. Negus has spent the hottest months of the year indoors writing his next book, while Callum has been catching absolutely nothing from a kayak, eating slightly furry muntjac and eventually earning the title of shark hunter after landing several sizeable tope in the North Sea.

We also discuss alternative locations for nicotine pouches, becoming the fish and the wisdom of responding to a wildfire warning at sea by heading ashore and lighting a barbecue.

CountrySlide is a podcast that looks at farming, conservation and life in the British countryside.

You can contact us by email on: contact@countryslide.co.uk 

Links
- T-shirts are still available on - store.sidecountry.co.uk
- Sign up to our newsletter - The Rural Register
- SideCountry Network
- Negus' book tour dates can be found here

The Hosts

Richard Negus website
Callum McInerney-Riley website
Richard Prideaux website

Edited and Produced by Amy Green for SideCountry Network

DISCLAIMER
Views are those of individual speakers and do not necessarily represent SideCountry, its presenters, contributors, partners or sponsors. For general information and entertainment only. Laws, seasons, access and guidance change; check official sources, obtain permission and act within your competence.

What connects baking sourdough, climbing mountains, keeping chickens, deer stalking, forestry, fishing, farming and knowing how to sharpen a chainsaw?

In this episode - broqadcast across every show on the SideCountry Network - Richard Prideaux and George Browne attempt to explain what SideCountry actually is, why it was built, and where the network is heading.

They start with George’s idea of the “sourdough pipeline”: the idea that apparently unrelated countryside interests are often connected by the same desire to learn, make, understand and do things for yourself.

From there, they look at how SideCountry brings those worlds together - not as one enormous general-interest podcast, but as a network of shows, articles, films and resources covering different parts of life in the British countryside.

They also explain why SideCountry aims to occupy some of the ground between the usual rural tribes and echo chambers; bringing farmers, foresters, anglers, shooters, walkers, conservationists, climbers and others into the same wider conversation without insisting that every subject needs a simple good-versus-bad answer.

Richard and George discuss plans to establish SideCountry as a Community Interest Company, how the project will be funded, why commercial income will be reinvested into the network, and the importance of maintaining editorial independence.

There is also a look at what’s already here - SideCountry, Countryslide and Fish and Game - and some of what is coming next, including Wild Food People, a forestry show, How the Countryside Works and Land Girls, alongside articles, gear guides, practical resources and films.

Plus drive-by agronomy, aggressive protein acquisition, Kevlar kilts, Heath Robinson smokers, professional explaining and the continuing possibility of a company yacht.

This episode is being published across the SideCountry podcast feeds as an introduction to the wider network.Find out more, sign up for the newsletter or get involved at sidecountry.co.uk.

CreditsPresented by George Browne and Richard Prideaux

Produced and edited for SideCountry by Amy Green.

DISCLAIMER
Views are those of individual speakers and do not necessarily represent SideCountry, its presenters, contributors, partners or sponsors. For general information and entertainment only. Laws, seasons, access and guidance change; check official sources, obtain permission and act within your competence.