Danby Show: The historic agricultural show set in the atmospheric North York Moors

This year’s show is the 162nd Danby Agricultural Show which is held in Vicarage Field just opposite the vicarage and was inaugurated in 1848.

It’s a show that remains true to its roots as a country gathering that brings together this Moors community and also attracts holidaymakers looking for a slice of real rural hospitality in what is a truly gorgeous corner of our wonderful county where I was once asked to be show president.

Show president this year is Robert Smith of local agricultural auctioneers and valuers Richardson & Smith who run Ruswarp Mart.

Rob has lived in Glaisdale for most of his life and has fond memories of days gone by when the Danby showfield was also the venue for the annual and much-loved autumn Castleton sheep sales, in the days when the big sales were often held in fields rather than at auction mart premises.

“There used to be two annual Glaisdale sheep sales on land that my family owned and one here known as Castleton Sheep Sale,” says Rob.

“The sales held in September and October would attract anything up to 7000 sheep being sold and were as much a part of the farming calendar as Danby Show. Sadly, they no longer take place, which is one element of farming history that has gone from this area, but I am delighted to have been invited to be this year’s show president and I’m looking forward to what is always one of the highlights of the year around here."

Rob says that such is the involvement within the farming community at both Danby Show and Egton Show which takes place the following Wednesday (August 21) that Ruswarp Mart never has markets scheduled on either day.

“Everyone involved in the farming community attends either Danby Show or Egton Show or both and there’s very little point holding any kind of sale on either day because we also love being at enjoy any show in the Moors as we love the opportunity to see as many of our farmer customers who farm around these hills and dales.

"It is always a pleasure to stand around the sheep pens and talk with everyone and just enjoy the day.

“I feel very privileged to have been asked to take on the role this year and found out indirectly that my nomination had come about through a fellow Danby farmer who put my name forward. It’s really nice to be asked. I’ve been show president at Hinderwell Show twice previously.

“One of my personal favourites at the show, alongside my love of livestock is visiting the Botton Village stand and trying out their cheeses made from the milk from their dairy herd.”

Rob wears a completely different hat at Egton Show where for the past four or five shows he has become its voice. Rob pays tribute to his predecessor.

“I now do the commentary at Egton Show having taken over from the late and very wonderful Mick Duddridge who was a well-known farmer at Newbiggin Hall, Aislaby and a really lovely gentle man with a voice like Brian Blessed.

"Mick passed away in 2020 at the grand old age of 98 but even more remarkably had been commentating up until three years before he passed.”

Indeed in 2014 Mick had received a long service award at the Great Yorkshire Show for his dedication to Egton Show.

“I’ve not got anything like Mick’s voice,” says Rob. “But I have a very real love of the role and being able to communicate and educate those who come to the show about the livestock including Egton Show’s excellent native breed cattle, native breed sheep and our magnificent heavy horses.

"This year will be especially poignant as we have lost two of our region’s most prodigious heavy horse producers Frank Stainthorpe and Bob Pearson.”

The North York Moors show season that gets under way in the hills at Danby Show, is a precursor to the big annual sheep, suckled calves and stores sales that Ruswarp is renowned for in September and October.

“Everything comes off the hill at that time of year,” says Rob. “We’ve worked hard at the way we have structured our sales. We started by making the monthly store cattle sale a concentration and have built that considerably.

“The quality of the cattle is a source of real pride to our local farmers and everything that comes into Ruswarp is of such good order that we now pull buyers from a huge area who recognise the animal husbandry that exists up here.

"Ours are predominantly Limousins and Blues, sometimes twice-crossed so that you’ve got a native beef influence too and they are strong cattle.”

Rob has his own personal views on what is happening to farming in his local area through a couple of estates and that he feels may have a huge impact in future.

“We’re watching closely how our livestock numbers may change due to a number of tenant farms coming to the end of their term that we understand won’t be renewed as tenancies.

“I actually fundamentally disagree with a lot of the policies that are being introduced in the UK. I am involved with a charity in Africa, the Zambezi Sunrise Trust in Zambia, and I see that the state of the world at the moment sees our population rising, the world getting hotter, there are crops failing and what are we doing? We’re paying people not to produce. There’s something not right there.”