Thanks to a dedicated team of volunteers, things are looking up for the Royal Lancashire Show. Ben Briggs spoke to key players to find out more.
MANY of the past 15 years have not been easy ones for the Royal Lancashire Show.From battles with the weather to issues around the organising committee, it has not always been plain sailing.
But after a rejuvenated event in 2021 brought livestock back to showground at Salesbury Hall, Ribchester, en masse, the feel-good factor is back among the dedicated group of volunteers who have sought to re-establish the viability of the show.
Sitting on the banks of the River Ribble, Salesbury Hall is a former farm which has now been converted into office accommodation and commercial lets for local businesses to rent.
Owned by the shows chair, Colin Mustoe, the prime farmland sits in the bottom of the valley and, viewed from the main road which weaves its way down the hill from Blackburn into the Ribble Valley, the showground is framed spectacularly by Pendle Hill in the background.
And while the farmland is still utilised for agricultural purposes by other farmers in the area, the venue has been home once again to the Royal Lancashire Show since 2017.
Colin, who is the founder of office furniture giant Senator, based not far away in Altham, near Accrington, says:
I was approached about five or six years ago about whether the show could come back here.
I wanted to get involved in running it again so, with the help of everyone on the committee, we have worked hard to rebuild the event and the financial reserves in the bank account.
His nod to its previous stint at Salesbury Hall is where the story becomes complicated.
With a history dating back more than 250 years, the Royal Lancashire Show, like many others, was not always held in one place.
Instead, it made its way around the county and in the 20thcentury was held in locations such as Blackpools Stanley Park, Witton Park in Blackburn, and Astley Park in Chorley.
By 2003, however, it had landed at Salesbury Hall, which is not far as the crow flies from either Blackburn or Preston and, despite a few teething issues in its first year around vehicles getting on and off the site, things started to build nicely from there.
But in 2007 the notorious Lancashire weather pummelled the event and heavy rain forced the cancellation of the show.
Changes to the organising committee then led it to move to a planned site at Myerscough, near Preston, but the event never really got off the ground in 2008 or 2009. Between 2010 and 2016 it was only held intermittently, and support and goodwill slowly ebbed away, leaving it with a precarious future.
But as Colin and other volunteers got back involved in 2017, there was a renewed desire to make a success of the show. There was just one snag: how to get the farming community back involved after years in which many exhibitors felt they had been maligned by poor organisation and false promises.
Yet after an enforced break due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, last years Royal Lancashire Show attracted about 1,300 livestock exhibits and prestigious animals and exhibitors to the event.
Chief cattle steward Ian Pickup, who farms at Hapton, near Burnley, says: Last year got so big so quickly that it took us all by surprise, but it really was back to being a proper county show.
We had winners here from the Royal Welsh, Great Yorkshire and Royal Highland and instead of it just being a Lancashire show it was a national one.
For Ian and his fellow livestock committee members, the 2021 event was the culmination of a lot of hard work to regain the trust of the countys farming community.
And they are hoping to build on that this July when the event will host the national show for the Simmental Cattle Society, with up to 80 animals expected for the major event.
At one stage we had to chase every livestock entry, says Ian. But now we are at the stage were people are coming back because they want to.
Colin adds: We want it to be a show that the farming community comes to and engages with.
Like many shows, however, it is trying to use that agricultural heart to reach out to an audience beyond the confines of the farming community, something it is well placed to do with literally hundreds of thousands of people within a 20-mile radius of the showground.
That farm to fork message is so important, says Ian. People want to know where their food comes from and events like this play a key role in that message.
Because shows like this attract the general public it means you can interact with them and show them that their food does not just come from a supermarket shelf.
While shows like the Royal Lancashire are all about communicating with the public, the show committee is also passionate about using it as a forum to promote and encourage the next generation of farming talent.
With Lancashire Young Farmers classes being arranged for this years event, there is a firm belief that the next generation of farmers should be pushed to the fore.
Ian says: We got the junior pig handlers talking to the public about their animals at last years show and this gave them life skills that they might not necessarily have had.
If we do not get them involved then they might not come through and, ultimately, they are the future.
So, while Lancashire is a county awash with strong local shows such as Great Eccleston, Garstang, Hodder Valley and Great Harwood, the volunteers at the Royal Lancashire are understandably proud to have got the event going again.
And despite acknowledging that it can be a juggling act to keep everyone happy during the show itself, Ian says the camaraderie among exhibitors at last years event was just one of the things giving them the impetus to make this years event even better.
He adds: We had a lot of positive comments and that gives you a real buzz when you are organising this years event. You have got to build on it and go forward from that success.
