Great Yorkshire Show: Historic pictures show how essence of Yorkshire's most famous show remains

As organisers prepare to open the gates to 140,000 visitors to the 166th Great Yorkshire Show, these photographs harking back to different times show how the crowds may have swelled, but the character remains entirely the same.

Yorkshire’s premier’s agricultural show, which features four days of agricultural excellence, spectacular entertainment and the chance to see thousands of the best animals in the UK in the competition rings, is now sold out on all four days.

The showground, all 250 acres of it, is the size of an average UK farm and although it may not have been top of the list of requirements when the Yorkshire Agricultural Society purchased the site in Harrogate back in 1950 for £16,500, it seems fitting that in a time now show, that there is that proximity between urban and rural life.

And, with farming and the security of UK food production at one of the most critical points in living memory due to the weather, climate change, changes to inheritance tax the fall-out from Brexit – the need to highlight the challenges rural and farming communities face now to the country’s largely urban decision-makers has never been greater.

For Rachel Coates, in her first year as show director, said: “I have known the show all my life but I continue to learn more about what it offers every day.

"As a former livestock exhibitor, I already knew about the superb quality of the animals and fierce competition to be a winner but there is so much more.”