Ryedale | Archive | 2003 | July | 2
From the Gazette & Herald, first published Wednesday 2nd Jul 2003.
WARM afternoon sunshine embraced Scampston Park as if to bestow a blessing upon the return of livestock to the Malton Show.
DEFRA restrictions meant that cattle and sheep remained penned and away from the main ring, but, nonetheless, there was an inescapable feeling of normality returning.
An estimated 12,000 people passed through the gates at the 117th Malton Show last Thursday as hundreds of competitors hoping for rosettes, cups and trophies battled it out.
Show president Mike Knaggs said he was delighted with the day.
"I could not have ordered the weather better if I had tried myself," he said. "It just shows, I think, that coming to Scampston Park was a wonderful move - it's a great day to prove it."
Mr Knaggs said it was good to see the traditional show thriving year after year.
"I want to remind people this is an agricultural show. It has been for as long as I can remember and this is my 44th year."
He added: "We had the livestock back and record entries for some of our classes - they all came up trumps."
Adrian and Penny Johnson, from Yearsley, were celebrating winning trophies for the best Aberdeen Angus and the best-presented Aberdeen Angus.
Said Mr Johnson: "We can feel the enthusiasm slowly creeping back. Everything was very flat last year."
He added that he had feared cattle exhibitors would not turn out because of the hassle of complying with DEFRA's torturously-complicated restrictions in the wake of the foot and mouth outbreak in the UK two years ago. However, this proved not to be the case.
"We feel that foot and mouth is in the past," said Mr Johnson. "But DEFRA seems to think it's around the corner. I find that hard to grasp."
Brian Taylor, the secretary of the canine section, was delighted with the turnout, saying it was the highest since 1989. He said: "It was the biggest entry since Princess Anne came to the show."
The day had begun rather overcast, with show secretary Jenny Bird admitting later that things seemed slow in the morning as a result.
However, by the afternoon, the sun had emerged and with it came the crowds, many of them enjoying ice creams as the events of the day unfolded in the main ring.
Among the attractions were a horseback fancy dress competition, a parade of vintage farm machinery and an outing for the hounds from the Middleton Hunt.
The hounds were led by the hunt's joint master Frank Houghton-Brown. He told the Gazette & Herald that support from the Malton Show crowd was as warm as ever.
"That's the 14th year that I have paraded the hounds," he said, "and, luckily, as one would expect, there has never been any change and that reflects the support we have in the local community.
"In rural places like North Yorkshire, people do participate in field sports and they enjoy them."
Children were, as usual, encouraged to enter the ring to greet the hounds and the huntsmen. Mr Houghton-Brown said that children would be "mortified" if they were not able to do so. "The hounds love the children as much as the children love the hounds," he added.
Plenty was going on outside the main ring as local trade stands stood side by side with traditional stalls offering good old-fashioned Yorkshire produce. For the first time, a farmers' market was among the stalls - doing a brisk trade in sausages, cheese, pork pies and freshly-caught fish.
Huby farmer John Piercy, from Yorkshire Ridings Produce, said: "I think it seems to have created a bit of interest and we have had a lot of people looking round and buying produce. We are still in our first year and we are just starting small and building up to see how it goes."
Vintage machinery was back for the second year running.
Kit Heselton, from Allerston, who was there with his beautifully-tended miniature steam engine, said it was good to see so many carefully-restored engines.
"I started working with steam engines in 1935. In my era, steam was there long before diesel," he said. "I have known nothing else in my line of business."
Meanwhile, North Yorkshire Police officers Mike Pannett and Andy Marsden were manning a new stand all about wildlife crime.
Illegal traps, badger skins, rare birds' eggs and even a crocodile or two were on display - all confiscated by wildlife officers.
PC Pannett explained: "Wildlife crime counts for something like £2 billion of crime each year, it's very big business.
"We are very fortunate here that we have not got many people who are breaking wildlife laws knowingly.
"We are looking to educate and inform people to stamp out bad practice and ignorance."
By the end of the day, said show secretary Jenny Bird, everyone seemed tired but happy.
"I think people are getting to know that it's a good show to come to, in a really nice setting," she said.
Updated: 10:34 Wednesday, July 02, 2003
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