- Paul Cawley, small holder (Undy)
Paul Cawley (Emma Drabble)
▶ Watch interview with Paul Cawley
Paul Cawley is a third generation ‘Leveller’. “I have never lost contact with the Moors,” explains Paul “My father-in-law, even though he worked down the steelworks for a time, also worked on a farm up at Pencoyd Castle.” Paul, has lived on the family smallholding near Magor since the 1960s.
He and his wife, Beverly, love life on the Levels. Both can recall the hazardous business of grazing cattle between the tides on Denny Island, out in the estuary. “You walked the cattle out and then stayed there with them for 12 hours!” explains Paul.
He treats the Severn with respect, especially when he’s out volunteering with Magor Marsh’s Wildlife Warriors. “We’ve got the second fastest tide in the world. If you’re in a tidal area, look at the little black line on the horizon. If that black line gets bigger in a couple of minutes, you run - the tides on the way back.”
As a game keeper Paul Cawley believes that the shooting lobby brings significant benefits to local nature (“there’s more wildlife on keepered shoots than on nature reserves”) and his work has afforded plenty of contact with the local wildlife from otter, hares, egrets, ravens and buzzards to the increasingly rare lapwing.
