By Jane Loughran

Last updated 20:06, Saturday, 26 April 2008

It takes more than the threat of a hurricane to deter Robert Benson and the hardy team who run Lowther Show. Staging the biggest country fair in the UK takes up to 70 per cent of Robert's working year.

The last thing Lowther Show director Robert Benson needed was the phone call he received at 5.30am on a Sunday morning bang in the middle of his busiest weekend of the year.

It was the leader of the RAF Falcons Parachute Regiment on the line. He was calling off his team’s display which was to be one of the highlights of the final day.

But it was only when Robert learned why that he began to feel truly concerned.

The tail of Hurricane Alice was forecast to hit the Penrith area of Cumbria at around 3.30pm on that particular Sunday five years ago.

Torrential rain threatened to flood the Lowther showfield and dangerously high winds promised to whip away the display tents. About 30,000 people were expected. It looked as if Robert was about to have a complete disaster on his hands.

The Lowther Show, however, is largely a gathering of hardy country folk who aren’t scared of a spot of foul weather. Robert took the decision to just carry on. As it happened the forecasters were five hours early. The deluge arrived at 8pm by which time the stallholders had been encouraged to dismantle their trade stands and go home.

Robert Benson leads the small team who plan and organise the Lowther Show which is the biggest weekend country fair in the country.

Around 60,000 people are expected to come from all over the country to attend this year’s show which runs from Friday, August 8 to Sunday, August 10.

The show involves massive logistical organisation; during the weekend around 400 volunteers including members the Lions Club of Penrith help the small team of regular officials; it includes a three-day carriage driving competition which has famously involved show patron, the Duke of Edinburgh, along with dressage, cross country and cone driving competitions.

Other events feature fishing, clay shooting, gun dogs, ferrets, horse-shoeing, rifle shooting, poultry and a working Hunter show. On top of all that, there are more than 400 stands in the shopping village.

The vagaries of the British climate, however, are outside of Robert’s control. While wet and windy weather does not deter dedicated countrymen and women, Robert is hoping to attract families, some of them used to more sheltered urban activities.

The show is a non-profit-making charitable organisation and one of its main aims is to promote a better understanding of rural matters.

“There are more sheep than people in Cumbria; it is a vast rural county. At the same time, many people don’t understand the countryside the way they once did.

“Farm cottages are no longer exclusively for agricultural workers; many have been sold to commuters or are used as holiday lets or as second homes.

“The knock-on effect is that the traditional rural way of life is under threat; village schools, shops, post offices, pubs and public transport are endangered. It is also immensely frustrating that fewer people understand issues like the link between country sports and conservation.

“It is hard to persuade some people that killing things and conservation can go together. A prime example is the plight of the red squirrel; the only way of saving the red squirrel in Cumbria is to control the grey squirrels as the pox they carry is lethal to reds,” adds 55-year-old Robert. He is chairman of Penrith and District Red Squirrel Group, on the main steering committee of Red Alert and the Save Our Squirrels Campaign, chairman of the Lakes Red Deer Group and a founder member of the Moorland Association.

Robert was brought to Cumbria by the 7th Earl of Lonsdale in 1976 in order to re-organise and manage the 40,000 acres of sporting tenancies; he soon became a trustee of the estate.

Originally from a farming family in Gloucestershire, Robert says that Cumbria is his spiritual and ancestral home; he discovered that in 1540 his family were lords of the manor in the Langdales, land which is today leased to the National Trust by the Lowther Estate.

His marriage to the Earl’s daughter Lady Jane produced two daughters, Laura, aged 27 and Sophie, 23, but ended in divorce. He now lives with his second wife, Kate, near Askham, just a stone’s throw from the estate.

The first Lowther Show was in 1973; Robert joined the committee in its ninth year, becoming show director in 1993 when he stepped into the shoes of Major Tim Riley who was suffering from ill health. At the time, he didn’t really bargain for the fact that a one weekend event would take up around 70 per cent of his working year.

The show has also turned into a boon for the surrounding area, generating business for the local pubs, restaurants, hotels and B&Bs. Its cancellation in 2001, due to the Foot and Mouth outbreak, added greatly to that year’s sense of depression in the county.

The 34th show will raise money for countryside organisations and this year’s chosen charity is Help For Heroes which supports wounded servicemen.

Appropriately, the Falcons Parachute Regiment will give one of the highlight performances in the main arena this year with the parachutists jumping out of a Hercules helicopter.

Fingers crossed, there are no hurricanes on the summer horizon.

• Tickets for the Lowther Show and Horse Driving Trials, which takes place from August 8–10, go on sale at the beginning of May and can be obtained from Lowther Estate office or by going online www.lowther.co.uk