Travelling in style

The gun bus is an integral part of any shoot but a band of imaginative owners are thinking outside the’box when it comes to finding the perfect shooting brake, be it traditional, quirky or lavish

- Rosie Macdonald

A WELL-KNOWN motoring journalist once described a Ford Probe as being able to “snap knicker elastic at 50 paces”. Shooting brakes – the good old shoot bus – might not have quite the same dramatic effect but they do evoke great affection, warmth and a little amusement.

Imagine owning a 1928 Rolls-Royce as a gun bus. Andrew and Margaret Gemmill had not but that’s what happened. “We were having rather a boozy lunch watching Sworders’ online auction of the Guinness Sale at Elveden. I was only after a set of dining-room chairs,” Margaret admits. “The auction went on till early evening and we were still sitting at the table drinking; the Rolls-Royce was the next lot and ‘Why not?’ we all said,” she laughs. Morning and sobriety arrived: “We woke and we thought ‘Help – what have we done?’ It was all very unexpected and unplanned.”

The Rolls-Royce was originally in the possession of a funeral directors before being converted by the late MP the Rt Hon Alan Clark. It was bought in 2007 by the Elveden estate in Suffolk to act as an upmarket gun bus ferrying guests to their pegs in grand style. “It was a privilege to travel in the Rolls,” says Nic Somers, a former guest on the shoot. “Sometimes it came out and other times it came out but never actually went out into the field. It was always accompanied by a mechanic,” he recalls.

As reality dawned for the Gemmills, they set to considering how they could put their new purchase to use. “My husband is a member of a syndicate shoot and we thought the Rolls would work well as a fun gun bus. We also run an individual pet cremation service and this vehicle could offer a special final journey for much-loved pets,” she explains.