Penistone Show celebrates 150 years of tradition with focus on pigs and toddler handlers

Penistone Show sheep and cattle secretary Elaine Earnshaw, who has looked after the two sections for over 20 years says this year’s Whitefaced Woodland entries are understandably very strong.

“They are our own breed, as they are known as the Penistone and this year the ASAO (Association of Show and Agricultural Organisations) which celebrates its centenary and has been celebrating it by offering 100 commemorative rosettes to 100 champions at 100 shows throughout the UK has honoured the Whitefaced Woodland champion at Penistone with one of them.

“We have a fabulous entry of 64 Whitefaced Woodlands this year amongst what will be another record sheep entry of around 340. Last year we had to bring in extra hurdles to cope with them all.

Elaine has been involved with the show all her life. Her father Frank Clegg was the previous show manager and mother Dorothy Clegg was the previous tradestand secretary.

“I’ve been around the show since I was 5 or 6 years old. I’ve helped on the gates, stewarded for the cattle in my teens and prior to being secretary for the cattle and sheep, I stewarded for the dogs.

“Penistone Agricultural Society owns the land where the livestock classes are held. In my time the sheep classes have massively increased in numbers. Unfortunately, the cattle numbers have sadly diminished but that’s a lot to do with the dairy entries and there being less dairy farmers.

“We still get around 70-80 cattle entries. We have a really good Highland class and strong native and continental classes and commercial classes attracting fabulous breeders and stockmen and women. In the past few years, we’ve had a really good show of Jerseys, so maybe we will get a few more dairy in future.

Elaine has added two very special events, one each to her cattle and sheep classes in the past few years.

“I got one of my ideas from you, Chris,” says Elaine. “We have our own People’s Choice competition that you instigated at the Great Yorkshire Show. I loved it and thought we could do something similar and that’s what we do. It’s very popular with people who come, being selected and allowed to come into the ring and choose their own favourite from the champions in the cattle classes.

The other idea Elaine has brought to the show is to include the very young children in the Young Handlers class for the sheep.

“We’ve always had a good entry for the young handlers and about five years ago I introduced a class for parents wanting their 3 to 5 year olds to have a go. It’s gone down an absolute storm.

“I now start the sheep classes with the young handlers because parents and grandparents were coming up saying when is it young handlers? It was getting a bit like ‘are we there yet?’ So we made the decision to start with them at 10 o’clock and then run the rest of classes.

“They all get a rosette and the winner gets a mug with a sheep on it as I found a local lady who does fabulous pottery doing just that. We now have three age categories. The overall winner gets a sash, prize money and a rosette. I buy sweets and have those in a big carrier bag. The little ones love that.

Rare breed pig farmer Lee Dunkley, better known for his tuba playing in orchestras around the world, is causing a big noise with his return of the pig classes and this year he is also really focused on young people.

“This will only be the third year since pigs returned to Penistone Show,” says Lee. “And it will be our biggest pig show yet with over 65 entries across 11 classes making it one of the biggest pig shows in the UK after the national show and the Great Yorkshire.

Lee has Large Black pigs at Midhopestones where he currently has what he terms an average-sized rare breed pig herd.

“The Large Black is the rarest of our traditional breeds and it is all about conservation of the breed. The more they are shown, all breeds, the more others will keep them too. It is so important to get more breeders. At the moment there are only 12 Large Black breeders in the UK and if they are not spread around lots of places a disease could wipe out the breed overnight.

“That’s one of the reasons why I want to encourage more showing of pigs and bring more people into the pig world. This year we have somewhere between 15-20 adult handlers, which is impressive, but even more so is the 15-20 young people showing.

“I’m very new to all this and have no history with pigs or any animals. I’ve contacted everyone I could in the past three years, making them aware of the show and what I wanted to achieve.

“Next year we will be fully BPA (British Pig Association) registered and will also have pedigree classes. I’ve lots of ideas how we can make it even bigger and better.

Lee oozes enthusiasm and that is clearly infectious.

“Everybody has been brilliantly supportive and we now have entries from local people in Sheffield, Doncaster and throughout South Yorkshire as well as further afield from Norfolk, Somerset, Northern England and Wales.

“I’ve worked on getting big sponsors and we now offer what I believe are the very best prizes in the United Kingdom.

“The Supreme Champion will receive at least £225 just for that title and to get to that stage they will have won at least 2 sections at £40 each.

Lee has replicated the prize money in the young handlers classes.

“Our youth prizes are now equal to the adult prizes particularly due to a massively generous donation from the Welsh Rare Breeders Club. The Supreme Young Handler will receive £225.

“I’m calling our young handlers section The Penistone Pig Pageantry to highlight young people getting involved in pigs. There are four sections and each will have a first prize £40, and second prize £25.

“We also run a People’s Choice competition in the pigs section and that is such great fun for everyone.

“I’ve had some fantastic help from lots of people including fellow pig show people like Jason Knaggs, who knows far more than I ever will about pigs, Gavin Pawson, Jeff Lloyd and The Electric Gate Company.