Rob was…
born near the New Forest but brought up in the wilder parts of the UK (father worked in forestry) – Cumbria, North East England, West Scotland on the banks of Loch Long & Wales in the hills of southern Snowdonia. His Nature Prize from school in Northumberland Spring 1975, no doubt set him on the road to a degree in Rural Land Management from Royal Agric University. He then worked for the National Trust as a land agent and then for a firm in Hertfordshire before setting up his own firm in 2002.
He lived in London for 13 years (commuting out of town as a land agent and writing a column, ‘Urban Fox’, in the ‘London Informer’ on wildlife); and is now a permanent resident of the Black Mountains, South Wales with his wife and two children. He still relishes occasional jaunts to London and around the UK and further afield as part of his commentator work.
Balancing two hats, as rural chartered surveyor FRICS* and commentator, he works for water company engineers laying pipelines across countryside while simultaneously boring The Times letters editor (112 published to date re enviro), blogs, the odd Times Nature Notebook, opinion pieces, talks.
He’s a member of BTO, BASC, Mountain Bothies Assoc, Outdoor Writers & Photo Guild, CLA, RSPB and life member of Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Angling Trust and Wild Trout Trust and Fellow* of the RICS.
He is on the RICS Countryside Policy Panel, wrote a book on the A to Z of Fishing for WH Smith (2004) and presented two reality shows for Discovery Channel (2001/2); one on survival fishing in Ireland and the other living off the land around a Welsh farmhouse. He contributes to TV and radio.