For The Goodwood Project photographer Jon Nicholson was given unprecedented access to the Goodwood Estate by the Duke of Richmond to record a year in the life of the Estate, however, the pandemic hit and the project took a different turn.
The 12,000 acre Goodwood Estate has a rich sporting history. It is well known for motor and horse racing, however it was also the third estate in the country to import French partridge eggs in 1774 – 800 eggs were imported at the cost of £14/16/10. The partridges were imported as eggs from France and hatched beneath broody hens in order to boost partridge numbers on the ground.
Jon Nicholson was initially tasked with documenting life on the Estate over a year or so, however due to the Covid-19 pandemic it ended up being an almost three-year project. He captured quiet moments and festivals, farm staff and foresters, the head gamekeeper and a gun enjoying a drive with young spectators, as well as the racehorse Strativarius or the motor-racing champion and keen shot Jackie Stewart.
The last person the family asked to document the Estate was George Stubbs, the celebrated 18th-century sporting artist whose paintings still grace the walls at Goodwood. Nicholson did photograph some of the scenes Stubbs painted, and whilst some of the scenes have changed over the years, he noticed that Stubbs sometimes used ‘artist license’ to alter the scenes (moving the Isle of Wight by a few miles to suit the painting, for example).
