BBC Countryfile’s Adam Henson will be opening the new Countryside Pursuits Area at this year’s Frome Show in what will be the 150th anniversary since the show started.
2011 will also see the launch of a new ‘Global Cheese Award’ with a fine new trophy and £1,000 for the best cheese from anywhere in the world, reflecting the aim of the founders – The Frome and District Agricultural Society – who, 150 years ago, invited entries to that first show from all over the UK.
The show, the 135th – there were no shows during either World War – takes place on Saturday 10th September and is one of the most popular family days out in the area, with a wide choice of attractions for visitors. This year more competitive classes than ever have been organised with a great many opportunities for local, regional and national businesses to market their goods and services.
The Fine Food and Local Food Halls will be offering their usual fabulous range of things to eat and drink. The Village Green will be buzzing all day with displays and demonstrations as varied as The Rockin’ Horse Equestrian Stunt Team, daredevil riders who charge past at full gallop, leaping from horse to horse and raising the adrenaline levels of the crowds around the Green, and Cyril the Squirrel and His Racing Terriers.
The Main Ring too will be no less busy with even more classes for horses and riders than ever, including a new class for thoroughbred and retired-racehorses. This is being sponsored by Somerset based champion national hunt trainer Paul Nicholls, who has top racers Kauto Star, Big Bucks and Denman training at his Manor Farm Stables at Ditcheat.
BBC’s Countryfile’s Adam Henson will be opening the new Countryside Pursuit Area which has been developed at West Woodlands. There, craftsmen and women will be showing off many of the traditional artisan crafts which are still practised despite the onslaught of modern technology, while the lake at the centre of the area will offer visitors a chance to try a range of skills for themselves.
In the Cheese Pavilion, where hundreds of cheeses and other dairy products will be on show, celebrity chef Mike Robinson, who runs a game and wildlife cookery school in Berkshire, will be cooking up a feast in the very popular Rangemaster Kitchen.
The livestock village, where Adam Henson will be also be judging some of the sheep and cattle classes, will be playing host throughout the day to the hundreds of cattle, sheep and goats which compete for class and show honours, with the winners going on to take part in the climax to the day’s programme, the Grand Parade in the Main Ring.
And making the show even more attractive as a family day out, entry prices have been held at the same level as last year, there are even more free buses to take you to and from the show and there’s plenty of free parking at the West Woodlands showground.
In a move which echoes the construction of the town’s Cheese and Grain building in 1875 to provide proper facilities for the displaying of the many cheeses on display, the site for the Cheese Pavilion at the West Woodlands showground is to be given a permanent base which means that, as well as the many tables on which the entries are displayed, it will be able to house major trade stands and offer facilities which are not possible on what is basically a grass surface.
The anniversary is being marked by an exhibition in Frome Museum which runs to the end of August. It will then transfer to the West Woodlands Showfield where it will be on display at this year’s show, appropriately, in the Cheese Pavilion.
For more information about the show, how to save money by buying tickets in advance, where to catch the free buses and the programme for the Main Ring and Village Green, visit www.fromecheeseshow.co.uk.
Pictured: Then and now. Visitors to the 1929 show dressed in their Sunday best even though the show was held on a Wednesday.
Much more relaxed, visitors strolling among the stands in 2010
