10 things you didn’t know about The Field

The Field was founded back in 1853

Back in 1853, the magazine was founded for those who loved shooting, fishing, hunting and could sniff out a decent claret at 1,000 paces.

It’s still like that today.

Here are a few things you may not know about the magazine.

Unusual Field facts

1. For a period of nine months in 1854, The Field was the largest newspaper in Europe at 24 pages.

2. The Field had its own correspondent throughout the Crimean Campaign and the November 18, 1854 issue of the publication contains a selection of personal narratives of those who took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade.

3. The launch of The Field Distemper Fund and the energetic campaign mounted by the newspaper brought about the preventative for dog distemper. (Read more on gundog vaccinations.)

4. The Field was instrumental in drafting the rules of lawn tennis and the players at the first Wimbledon Championships were competing for The Field Trophy (now on permanent display in the Wimbledon museum).

5. J H Walsh, a former editor of the magazine, started the work which culminated in the production of the field-proof gun, which is still the basic standard for tests in ballistics.

6. The modern golf-ball is based upon a design agreed after tests carried out by The Field magazine in the mid-Twenties.

7. President Eisenhower was a keen reader of The Field.

8. The Field’s mid-Fifties campaign to focus attention upon the dangerous state of British racecourses, resulted in legal action by the owners of Epsom Racecourse. The Course was dug up and relaid.

9. The first article drawing public attention to the pollution of Britain’s waterways appeared in the late 1850s. No year has gone by since then when it has not been a subject for discussion in the magazine. (Read more on river health here.)

10. Dickens was one of the first Field readers. Well, he might have been – he was certainly drinking pals with The Field’s first editor.

This article has been updated since first published.