Loss for weather-hit Wolsingham Show
Last updated 05:16, Friday, 24 October 2008
THROUGHOUT the Northern Counties, householders and farmers are counting the cost of flooded homes and fields.
Agricultural show committees wonder if they can carry on and Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling gets to grips with the loss of almost a third of its competitions in 2008 because of bad weather.
Wolsingham, the oldest agricultural show in the country, first held in 1763, actually went ahead with the first two days of its three-day programme despite opening on the wettest day in the North when Morpeth flooded and stock drowned in the fields.
Five hundred rabbits turned up to be judged in a big tent, displays ploughed on in the main arena and a full programme of wrestling took place on a green oasis in the middle of deep mud.
The only problem was that no-one came to watch.
Gate receipts were £35,000 down from normal, leaving an estimated loss on the year of £25,000, but that would have been much worse if they had cancelled the event.
Show Secretary Gordon Dobson indicated that for Wolsingham this was the first loss in 18 years, but another bad year would force them into mortgaging their showfield to carry on.
Further North, the smaller one-day show at Bellingham has only been cancelled thrice in 157 years. They even kept going through the Second World War years to make money for returning troops when the peace returned.
Rachel Pearson, in her first year as Show Secretary, with all the pressure that entails, realised in the week before the show that all her work and that of many others was to come to nothing as rainy day followed rainy day and cancellation was inevitable.
An estimated loss of £12,000 is the result.
Now, as well as planning next year's show there are fund-raising activities to organise to keep the Bellingham Show alive.
Despite the disappointment, her enthusiasm for Bellingham Show and the other similar events throughout the region remains undiminished, for she sees the small agricultural shows as a core event in each rural community, bringing people together, forging links, and keeping the local heritage and identity alive.
Bellingham, Borrowdale, Forestburngate, Grayrigg, Ingram, Harbottle, Keswick, Kirkby Lonsdale, Langholm, Loweswater, Lowick, Lowther, Millom and Broughton, Torver, Wasdale, and Whalton: these are the events where wrestling had to be cancelled this year, and where a special effort has to be made to ensure next year is successful.
For the Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling Association the missing affiliation fees means a significant drop in income, so the provision of insurance, trophies and administration is more difficult.
Tomorrow, at Buttermere Show, the outdoor wrestling season ends halfway up a Lakeland fell, alongside pens of rudded Herdwicks, the walking stick competition, runners and hounds heading for the hills, the singing of hunting songs and the craic. A small but significant statement of this area's cultural identity
DATES
Saturday October 25, 3pm - Buttermere Show U12/U15/U18/121/2/AW
Friday November 7 - CWWA Presentation Dinner in the Auctioneer, Rosehill, Carlisle, including music from Lyn Murray, tickets from Alf Harrington 01228 576675.
