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Great Yorkshire Show top of its class
May sees the start of the new show season. Chris Berry reports on how a changed national picture will affect the Great Yorkshire Show.
The Royal Show, held at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire, has been subjected to much derision from Yorkshire's farming community for a number of years. Those who have continued to attend have come back scratching their heads in bewilderment at its decline in the past decade – and recently the announcement was made that it would cease to exist after this year.
Despite the brickbats, no-one, it seems, really wanted to see it go.
This month sees the start of Yorkshire's agricultural show season, one that really picks up momentum in July with the centrepiece, the three-day Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate.
It, too, has its detractors, those who feel that it has shifted too far from farming to handbags and glad rags. Overall, though, it is with a strong sense of county pride that most of the farming community view the Great Yorkshire Show as on a par with both the Royal Welsh and Royal Highland Shows.
Nigel Pulling, chief executive of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, organisers of the GYS, believes the Royal's disappearance from the calendar may be partly down to its national status, and the show's emphasis having changed.
"My initial reaction when I heard that it was folding was that it was a very sad day and I really couldn't understand it. It was the farming show of England and I think farming needs every opportunity to promote itself on a national stage.
"I have attended the Royal since 2002 and it would be fair to say it has declined since then. They just didn't seem able to harness a strong constituency of support. We are very proud and pleased that with our show, the whole of Yorkshire comes out and supports us to the full.
"The Royal always drew people from a much wider area because of its status, but I don't think anyone really felt it was particularly their show. What I can say is that the regional shows such as the Cornwall, the Norfolk and ourselves are all doing really well. We have a huge, loyal following with a great affection for the Great Yorkshire."
Agriculture once had two flagship national shows – the Royal Smithfield Show was the other and that has staggered through this decade so far, firstly reduced to a biannual show in London, then morphing into a "new" but tapered-down event at the Bath & West Showground before coming to its present rest at Stoneleigh.
"National shows can work," says Nigel Pulling.
"You only have to look in Scotland and Wales. Their shows have gone from strength to strength. You can argue that they have gone even more that way since devolution and having their own governments in their own countries. There's certainly more of a political interest in agriculture in Scotland and Wales because of the proportion of their GDP that is made up of agriculture. In England agriculture only accounts for less than two per cent of GDP. In Scotland and Wales it will be a great deal more."
Deborah Goodall, marketing manager for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, says: "It's about national identity. People in Wales and Scotland have a strong allegiance to their country.
"We don't have any less a loyalty to being English, it's just that we have more of an identity to our counties."
This time last year Yorkshire Agricultural Society members were spitting feathers over the decision from the Royal Show to move its dates. It was only by a matter of days, but the
effect on an already crowded show season was serious for the GYS. In retrospect it was perhaps the last fling of a dying show, desperately trying to cling to survival in any way it could. On a smaller scale a similar thing happened to the likes of Wetherby Show some years ago, which moved to a weekend date without success. Nigel and his team saw what was happening, but were unable to convince the Royal's organisers.
"The reason it annoyed us was that moving the show's date wasn't the answer.
"We don't mind competition, we welcome it. But the problems they were having was not down to their dates. It caused huge logistical problems. We didn't lose any trade stands or livestock exhibitors even though they all had to get everything down and away on the Sunday to get to us for the Monday.
"But it did cause a lot of problems with a huge amount of traffic arriving on one day rather than spread over a longer period."
The GYS has an enviable reputation among the showing world for the quality of its stock. It attracts a huge Scottish contingent every year, as well as competitors from all over the UK.
They come to be judged the best of the best and as such Harrogate is an ideal location for all. It's a fact not lost on Nigel. "We are now aiming to cement our position as the Number One show in England.
"We have recently been awarded a BSJA award for the best county show, and clearly if the Royal Show is not around it ensures that the Great Yorkshire Show is an even greater platform for building on media coverage for the industry.
"We regularly have the presidents of the NFU and CLA here – and of course last year we were very pleased to host the Queen on the occasion of the show's 150th. We are immensely proud of our show.
"It is still all about being a great social day out (or three days if you stay). You meet your friends, see the machinery, the livestock, the food. We appeal to the general public too, as well as being very proud of 30 per cent of our audience being farmers.
"Perhaps the Royal Show was no longer a big part of what the Royal Agricultural Society of England is involved with. We do other things here at Harrogate too, but the heart of this society is the Great Yorkshire Show. It is inconceivable that will ever change."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
