Closing note of Highland fling

It’s the end of an era for 86-year-old Anne Barugh, of Bridlington, and her Highlanders.

After 33 years of competing at the Great Yorkshire Show, her cattle won’t be in the ring this year.

“I’ll hate not going with them, but Eric Robson, Tosh to everyone who knew him, died earlier this year. He had shown the cattle for me for a number of years so that’s, unfortunately, the end of my showing career.

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“A few months ago, when it came to the entry deadline, the chief cattle steward rang me to let me know she hadn’t had an entry from me.

“She said she didn’t want me to miss out because I was nearly a part of the building and showground at Harrogate, but I’m afraid old age has finally crept up on me.”

Anne’s glorious reign in the show rings of Edinburgh and Harrogate has included selling a bull calf to The Queen, winning as the supreme champion at the Royal Highland and a hat-trick of supreme championships at the Great Yorkshire Show.

Born in Bridlington, her own history has all the elements of a romantic novel, although she never married, citing herself as being too picky.

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“I was asked two or three times but they were either shorter than me, had sweaty hands or a hairy chest. I regret not getting married now. I would have loved a family.”

Her father owned an iron and steel works in Hull and she was the youngest of four children.

“I went to school at Queen Margaret’s, in Scarborough, was evacuated to Castle Howard and was there when the home was burnt down. I became a transport driver in the WRENS and drove officers at Felixstowe to the navel base from 1944-1946.

“I went to domestic science college in Edinburgh to study housekeeping. I saw an advertisement for air hostesses with BOAC and I had 10 years flying as far as the Far East.

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“In 1959, I left and was up in Scotland on holiday and learning to water ski when the owner of the hotel came up to me one night and said he was sacking the manageress and if I wanted the job, it was mine. I was there five years, at Lochearnhead, in Perthshire, and it was the best time of my life. I loved it.”

She returned to the east coast of Yorkshire to look after her ageing mother, Elsie Anna, one of the Fenner family from Hull, who owned JH Fenner, an international conveyor-belt company. At that time Anne believed her love affair with Scotland was over, but in reality, it was only just beginning.

“It was my sister who started me off with Highland cattle. She knew how much I liked them when I had been in Scotland and we had a bit of land, so she said why didn’t I get one.

“I had been fond of them as the hotel kept some, so I rang them up and asked if they had anything for sale. They said they had this cow and calf they were going to take to Stirling Market the following week.

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“I went up and bought them. I’d never driven a car with a trailer in my life and I especially didn’t realise just how much weight I would have in the trailer with my newly-bought cow and calf.

“My car wasn’t really up to the job and I was found out going up Sutton Bank. I got stuck and there were furious car drivers all tooting and honking behind me. Fortunately, a kind farmer came and reversed me all the way back down.”

The die was cast for Anne’s Easton Fold and her romance with Scotland continued.

She has attended the Highland sales at Oban for all of the past 36 years, twice a year, and began attending the Royal Highland and the Great Yorkshire 33 years ago.

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“The bull calf I sold to The Queen hadn’t made much in the ring up at Oban, so I’d taken it out of the sale. But The Queen’s factotum, who was a friend of mine, came along and offered me £1,000. It was my first ever sale.”

Anne might not be able to get her livestock to Harrogate this year, but she has no intention of calling it a day on her fold-up at Bridlington where she still gets up at 7.15am to let out her geese.

“I’ll carry on until I drop dead. I know I ought to get rid but what would I get up for in a morning? I’ll not buy any more stock, just sell.

“People tell me to get rid but how can you shoot your friends? I get my quad bike out at 8.30 every morning and go to the fields and check on them all. I have a dozen at the moment, and five calves. I comb them and clean their bums. I had three yearlings that I was going to halter train and choose the best one to show, but without Tosh, I haven’t been able to get anyone else to spend the time.

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“I had a friend coming down from Scotland to take my entry up to the Royal Highland but it was going to cost about £1,000 overall for the week, so that’s it for my showing career.’

You won’t see her judging. Anne has her own views on it.

“I was on a judging panel one time and I hated it. I think it’s an easy way to lose your friends.”

Anne will still be at the Great Yorkshire Show this year. She is also an honorary member of the Highland Cattle Society last year and her nephew, Michael Barugh, is carrying on the family’s Scottish connection. He breeds Shetland ponies and has more than 100 of them at Aldbrough.

“I’ll miss showing certainly, but I will still enjoy being at the show for the camaraderie. The social life of being alongside other breeders is just as important as the showing,” she says.