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Show goes from strength to strength
Todmorden Show celebrates its 80th appearance next Saturday – two years later than intended. The reason is down to the town's location: eight to 10 miles from Burnley, Rochdale and Halifax, it is the ultimate border town.
Surrounded by the Pennines where three valleys meet, this area is prone to flooding with more than 100 incidents since the mid-19th century. In 2000, flood damage cost more than 20m and hit over 1,000 homes.
Centre Vale Park is the setting for the Todmorden Show, a beautiful area of parkland with a marvellous cricket ground where Yorkshire still bring their second XI. Unfortunately for the show organisers, it was also the spot identified by the Environment Agency when they needed to put in place a system to control overflow from the River Calder and Walsden Water.
So the park was closed to undertake the work which will diminish the probability of a flash flood here from once in 10 years to one in every 50 years.
Following two years of inactivity, Todmorden Show returned last year and is now back with a committee keen to ensure its place in the calendar is firmly fixed in everyone's minds.
Rob Goldthorpe, the show secretary, said: "When you have two years without a show it does make life a bit challenging. We put on various events to keep people interested, but I think the fact that we got it back together last year and again this year is down to the spirit in the town."
Margaret Wood, a farmer's daughter and primary school teacher, looks after the sheep sections. "We're expanding both the sheep and cattle sections this year," she says. "We've brought in the Texel classes and I already have over 60 Texels that will be here on the day. We have some Lonk and Gritstone entries too, as well as open classes for both continental and native breeds."
The Lonk is a long-established favourite at Todmorden Show as it is native to the area. It is a horned breed and its markings are black on and around the nose and around the eyes. Otherwise its face is mainly white with irregular black patches, as are its legs. It has been present on the Yorkshire and Lancashire Pennines border for centuries and one Lancashire flock has been traced back to 1740.
However, its days could be numbered. The effects of culling during foot and mouth in 2001 meant it is now classed as an endangered breed.
Margaret feels that now extends to farmers as much as the breed. "I've not missed a show since I was about 15. We used to have a big sheep section when I first came, with Lonks and Gritstones, but they are becoming pretty rare so we have had to look at bringing other breeds in.
"When I was growing up most of the farms around here were 25-30 acres in size and families were making a living out of that. That's all gone now. You're looking at around 200 acres to do the same today."
Philip Stephenson is the cattle secretary and runs the local animal feed merchants. He had always come along to the show in previous times but started getting more involved with the running of it three years ago.
"Todmorden Show has always been the big event of the year for me in the town," he says. "I got involved when the show was shut down for two years. It looked like there were very few people on the committee and I thought it might not go too well in the future, so I jumped in.
"We will have 40-50 cattle this year from all over the North West and further over into Yorkshire. People like Willie Seels and William Timms are regulars. We also get a lot of Herefords, as well as a few dairy cattle."
In common with many other agricultural shows, Todmorden now has far more entries in the sheep and cattle sections that travel from further afield than they have locals.
"Show people are a fairly distinct bunch these days. Around here we only have around four major commercial farms, with the rest being more like part-time concerns or hobby farms. What we do find is that since we are one of the early shows there are a number of show people who come to give their stock a run out."
Ben Bracewell is the show's chairman and has been coming to it for more than 50 years. In that time he has seen how it has changed.
"It was smaller than it is now. In those days we just had one secretary who did all the livestock – sheep, cattle, goats, horses – Tom Trafford. He and Geoffrey Rushton and Darren Hale put a lot of hard work in and ran the show with military precision. It is their tradition we are trying to keep up."
Peter Cryer has been president of the show for the past 16 years. Now
semi-retired, having run the newsagent's business in the centre of the town, he too comes from a farming background.
"My father was a farmer all his life and when I was in my teens I used to show Jerseys here. This has always been a fabulous venue and now we've got it back we intend to grow the show from strength to strength.
"We've had great support from everyone in the town and this year we have attracted more sponsorship than ever," he said.
The problem with being on the edge of the county is that you can get forgotten about and too far away to bother with. But for show aficionados here's a little advice. From my village just east of Leeds, it takes just over an hour to get to Todmorden.
The show is in a lovely spot, a still largely undiscovered corner of the county – and it is every inch a Yorkshire-based agricultural show.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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