Kilnsey Show embraces milestone year

This Yorkshire Dales hamlet consists of less than two dozen homes but its traditional agricultural show held amid the stunning backdrop of its famous crag - depicted by Turner all those years ago - attracts around 15,000 visitors, and today’s milestone 120th Kilnsey Show and Sports was no different.

Although it has been a tumultuous month of weather for Dales farmers, a fine dry day meant the going was good for this one-day show that attracted livestock exhibitors from as far afield as Norfolk - so was the case of Blue Faced Leicester sheep man Ben Harvey, whose journey north began at 1.30am.

Sheep numbers held firm on 2016, though Mule entries were up and it was the Mule champion, belonging to regular show goer John Lord of West Dowgill, which was named the best sheep of the show, taking the family’s supreme title count at Kilnsey to an impressive five.

It was the homebred Mule tup’s first outing at a show and it is due to be sold at auction in Penrith on October 5.

In reserve was Giggleswick’s Alison and John North with a homebred pedigree Texel that came eighth out of 45 in the best of the breed at the Great Yorkshire Show earlier in the summer.

It was a particularly thrilling day for the Dean family of neighbouring Threshfield. Dorothy Dean was enjoying the day as show president when her son Angus scooped the Supreme Dairy title. His Holstein third calver, Threshfield Million Tilly, was the winner and she will now likely be a star attraction when the family hold their first major sale of 200 cattle at Toft House Farm on September 16.

“I thought I had better come to here and promote our stock so to win is very helpful,” Mr Dean said.

The reserve dairy animal belonged to the Booth family of Earby and was their Holstein, Shawdale Moortop Atwood Pledge, which was a previous winner at Otley Show.

There was a personal victory for Katie Herd, aged six, of Hebden who overcame her fear of being up close to cows to parade ‘Dragonfly’ in the young handlers class.

The show’s commercial beef champion, a 13-month-old British Blue X called Blueberry and homebred by John Stephenson of Bordley near Malham went on to be declared Supreme Beef Champion, pipping smallholder Pat Varley of Queensbury and her champion Limousin, Queenshead Millie, into reserve.

Other winners emerged in the show’s horticulture and handicrafts classes, while the Mountain and Moorland and heavy horses sections made for captivating viewing.

This is a show that encapsulates many a longstanding rural craft, and the art of sheep dog trialling and dry stone walling were also ably demonstrated alongside displays of vintage tractors, angling and cookery.

Skipton-based livestock haulier Geoff Dunn, 72, recruited his son Steven, 47, and his friends to carry out a full dismantling into 35 parts and then reassembling of a vintage 1951 Fergie TED20 tractor using just spanners in a fundraising spectacle to raise funds for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

The team has raised more than £1,200 this year by carrying out their display at country shows.

Reflecting on the 120th show, president Mrs Dean said: “It’s a special occasion. A lot of work goes into it to get the show going and the show field is looking good this year.”

As is tradition, the show culminated in the junior, women’s and men’s crag races and then a programme of seven trotting races in a thrilling display of horse power.

VICTORS NEW AND OLD IN THE CRAG RACE

In the hotly anticipated senior men’s crag race, it was Northumberland’s Nick Swinburn who triumphed, followed by the consistently high ranking Simon Bailey of Cheshire in second and Ilkley Harriers’ Jack Wood in third.

And it was a special day for returning champions too as a number of former men’s race winners, the eldest dating back to the 1950s, were reunited to mark the show’s 120th year.

Among them was former British fell running champion Kenny Stuart and five times winner John Atkinson who both travelled from Cumbria, and two men who dominated the race between 1969 and 1979, great rivals Tommy Sedgwick and Fred Reeves.

Mr Reeves, who now lives in the USA, was last at Kilnsey in the 80s. He said: “Nothing has changed and why would it because it’s so amazing.”

Mr Atkinson said it was nice to get to enjoy the show’s atmosphere: “I wasn’t particularly good with nerves. I don’t think I came and had an enjoyable day until after I finished.”