ASHFORD CATTLE SHOW

HISTORIC 150TH ASHFORD CATTLE SHOW

The President of the NFU, Minette Batters, is to be the guest speaker at the annual dinner that will mark the conclusion of this year’s historic 150th Ashford Cattle Show.

Attendance by such a high-profile guest highlights the importance of this event, both to the town and to the industry.

There are no longer shows of this kind in Canterbury, Maidstone and Sevenoaks, their demise having been brought about by the closure of the markets in those towns.

In Ashford, where the market continues to thrive, bringing together buyers and sellers, usually weekly, to fix a price that reflects demand and supply in the fairest possible way, the show has now been happening for 165 years. Even during the pandemic, although the show was inevitably cancelled, the market itself continued to serve the industry and play its part in delivering food to the table. The fact that this is the 150th show since 1857 reflects the fact that 15 shows have been missed over the past 165 years – due to world wars and to diseases affecting both humans, in the shape of Covid-19, and animals, where bluetongue and foot and mouth forced cancellations.

This year’s show, held at the Ashford Market on Monday 28 November by kind permission of the Ashford Cattle Market Company and Hobbs Parker Auctioneers LLP, will have a modern slant but will still have its roots in tradition. There will be classes for finished cattle, sheep and pigs, lamb carcasses, wool, field crops, art and Christmas cakes, together with a children’s section and, new for this year, a competition for the best three eggs.

The lamb carcases and Christmas cakes will be auctioned on the day, while the livestock will be sold in the usual market on Tuesday 29. The annual dinner will take place that evening at the Ashford International Hotel. Also at the dinner the awards for the best herd, flock and arable crops, which were judged during the summer, will be presented.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

"Having been involved in the Ashford Cattle Show for nearly 50 years, as a committee member, steward and chairman, I am extremely honoured to have been elected president in the year in which we celebrate our 150th Show.

“In taking on the presidency I am proud to be following in the footsteps of my grandfather Howard, who held the position in 1966, and my father Geoff, who was president in 1979 and in 1998, the year the market moved to its new home.

“The show committee has been fortunate enough to have found the 1907 jubilee book which gives a fascinating insight into the original show held on 15 December 1857. This, along with the centenary Book of 1956 and the 150th anniversary book of 2008, sets the scene for the production of the publication that marks this year’s historic event.

“The mismatch of 15 years between our 150th anniversary in 2008 and our 150th show, the subject of this publication, has been caused by two world wars, foot and mouth disease, bluetongue and Covid19, all of which have resulted in cancellations. The Ashford Cattle Show, though, has survived.

“My earliest memories are, as a schoolboy, walking into the old Ashford Market and seeing row upon row of livestock being prepared for showing by their proud owners and, particularly, being bowled over by the smell of the sides of bacon on display as I entered the Amos Hall. At that time Spear Bros and Clarke of Lenham used to take local pigs, smoke them and display the sides of bacon for the show.

“In my lifetime, the show and the format have changed in many ways. Farms have become bigger; the small family farm has disappeared and flocks and herds have increased in size. There are now fewer stockmen on farms with the time and ability to show their animals at events like ours.

“On the positive side, however, many school young farmers’ clubs in Kent have become involved in the show. Not all, or even many of these young people will continue to work in agriculture, but, importantly, they are learning where food comes from and how it is produced.

“Back in the 1970s, stock would be brought into the market on the Sunday evening. All the showing and judging took place on the Monday morning and was followed by a lunch (in those days at the Odeon Cinema) and the livestock sale that afternoon and evening.

“Tuesday was market day and the public would visit the show, look at the exhibits and watch the prize giving. Although the stock had already been sold, most of it was still on site for all to see. Nowadays the whole show is a shorter event, with stock arriving on the Monday to be judged and sold on the Tuesday followed by the show dinner in the evening.

“Despite all the changes that have occurred in farming over the past 165 years, the show has adapted in response and, no doubt, will have to continue to do so in the future. I am proud to have been a part of the show, which has provided me with much fun and many friendships over the years."

CHARTING THE HISTORY

The first organisers of the Ashford Cattle Show, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not know they were in at the start of an institution that would still be thriving more than 160 years later.

Had they known, they would no doubt have kept better records. As it is, charting the history of the show has never been an easy task, with the author of the jubilee year publication of 1907 admitting to being “handicapped by the absence of documentary matter concerning the first decades”.

He continued: “Earlier Secretaries of the Association, not anticipating the interest they would have evoked at the present day, were not careful of the preservation of catalogues or any written evidence of the first shows.”

The first Ashford Fat Cattle Show, which had its roots in the old Ashford Agricultural Association, was held in Ashford Cattle Market in 1857. For the next half century it was held annually without interruption, something that was remarked upon with some pride in the jubilee year publication.

The show’s 21st birthday was an early highlight for the committee, which the 1907 publication pointed out had “always been fortunate in securing the patronage and presidency of all the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the neighbourhood interested in the Society and of agriculture generally”.

In that year – 1879 – his Royal Highness the late Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, KG, then Duke of Edinburgh and living at Eastwell Park, was president of the show and took the chair at the dinner in the Corn Exchange, “no other building in the town being large enough to accommodate the numbers who were anxious to be present”.

The duke was patron of the show during his time at Eastwell, and in 1885 took the cup for the best Down Sheep. A year earlier King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, had been awarded first prize for best short-wooled sheep with a pen of Southdown wethers.

1888 was the first year of open judging and the year that all stock was weighed alive for the first time. There were prizes for butter on the schedule and despite the fact that the Ashford event clashed with Smithfield, it took a record gate of £63 7s (£63.35).

1891 saw a good attendance on the Tuesday afternoon after Sir Edward Watkin gave the employees at the South Eastern Railway Works a half day’s holiday to allow them to visit the show.

It wasn’t always good news, though. The show was very small in 1893, “on account, possibly, of the very dry year”, and the following year the gate was the smallest on record, bringing in just £22 7s 6d (£22.37). Then, as in recent years, the problem was foot and mouth disease, “which occasioned the postponement of the Show from 10-17 December”.

There had been problems in earlier years, too, notably “the disastrous year of 1865, when the Cattle Plague was raging and many districts were closed against any movement of cattle” and 1868, which “is always remembered and spoken of as the year of the great gale”. That was the year the poultry tent was completely demolished, although after sterling work by committee members in rounding up the exhibits, the publication reveals that the show did eventually go ahead.

The author of the centenary publication in 1956, Alfred J Burrows, also suffered from poor recordkeeping on behalf of show secretaries, pointing out that he had not found it easy to compile the book “since records are scant”.

It is interesting that the preface to that publication, written by no less than the late Bill Deedes (later Lord Deedes) points out that the show has one striking constant – “the recurring names of families long associated with the land and farms of Kent”. In a tribute that has remained true in recent years, he commented: “What has sustained the Show through this extraordinary century has been their loyalty to it; that, and the devoted services of its officers and organisers.”

Mr Burrows’ chronicling of the previous 50 years began on a high, with the show of 1908 hailed as “another triumph for the organisers”. The following year, when tickets for the dinner cost 3s 6d (about 17p), the after-dinner speech by auctioneer William Winch cast a gloomier note: “It is impossible to pay the taxes and burdens upon the land and get a living at the prices the farmer makes on his produce,” he said, echoing a sentiment that might strike a chord with some today.

Foot and mouth disease struck again in 1912, but good support for the recently introduced fruit show kept the gate money coming in despite the lack of livestock and carcass entries. The hop classes were apparently judged to be “the finest show of the year in the Kingdom”, although Mr Burrows does not quote his source.

War, bad weather and the recurring menace of foot and mouth took their toll on the show over the next decade or so, but it remained a highlight in the local agricultural year, and by 1928 entries had climbed back up to all-time high. The Rt Hon. David Lloyd George was president in 1935 but was sadly unable to attend the show. He did, though, write to say that it had been his earnest desire for many years to help forward the revival of agriculture.

War saw the show suspended between 1939 and 1947. When it was revived in 1948, 16 year-old Miss Rosemary Howard, the youngest exhibitor, took the first awards and a challenge cup in the section for young farmers.

In 1951, the president’s wife, Mrs Harman Hunt, presented the prizes. It was only after she had shaken hands with some 200 successful exhibitors that it was discovered that she had broken a finger in her right hand.

In a reflection of public sensitivities that would perhaps find resonance today, the word ‘fat’ was dropped from the title of the show in 1953, leaving it known simply as the Ashford Cattle Show.

Classes for smoked bacon and lambs’ carcasses were introduced in the centenary year of 1956 but there was still no mention of the continental breeds of cattle that dominate proceedings today. In those days there was still a class for the best pen of three wether tegs.

It was not until 1969 that the first class for Friesians was introduced, and it was a further six years before the first Charolais cattle appeared at the show.

A year later, in 1976, weight judging was introduced, with members of the Ashford Young Farmers’ Club selling tickets to those people keen to have a go at judging the weight of a Chianina bull supplied by W H Mouland & Son.

With sponsorship of classes becoming increasingly regular in the late seventies, the Kentish Express did its bit to make the public more aware by introducing the popular painting competition for children in 1979.

Once established, the continental breeds quickly became the major classes at Ashford, and by 1984 the Sussex cattle that had been the mainstay of the show for so long had slipped down the running order to feature as classes 12, 13 and 14.

In 1993, with Ashford increasingly capitalising on its close links with Europe, secretary John Martin invited the cattle show’s first French judge – Louis Lepoureau – to pass judgment on the local sheep.

Just five years later, in 1998, the French connection again had an impact on the agricultural community when the cattle market moved to its new premises off the Southern Orbital Road, when part of its historic site in Elwick Road was needed for Channel Tunnel rail link works.

In 2008 the Ashford Cattle Show celebrated its 150th anniversary, one year late thanks to foot and mouth disease again rearing its ugly head, along with bluetongue.

In her introduction to a special publication marking the event, the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma, CBE, MSC, CD, DL commented: “Despite the intrusion of so much modern industry into our glorious County of Kent, farming is still very much at its heart. Many generations of families continue on their farms and contribute enormously to the wellbeing of our community and county – despite the increasingly difficult circumstances with which they have to compete.

“The Ashford Cattle Show is an event of which we all feel proud, demonstrating as it does the results of good farming, and how modern trends can be a help in achieving this. Farmers well deserve our great appreciation for what they bring to our deep-rooted love of Kent and the feeling of continuity despite the changes life brings to us all.”

Disease again saw the show disrupted over the past few years, although this time it was the human population at risk rather than livestock. Covid-19 saw the 2020 show cancelled and the 2021 event limited to one, slimmed-down day, resulting in this year’s show being celebrated as the 150th.

FIRST WOMAN CHAIRMAN

Sandra Brown played her own part in the history of the Ashford Cattle Show when she became the first woman chairman of the show committee in 2003/04.

In 2008, during the 150th anniversary of the show, she said she felt she had brought “an extra dimension to the skills mix on the organising committee”. Looking back on the occasion of the 150th show, she added: “It was little things like suggesting we should say thank you to the judges with a bottle of wine. Previously they had worked hard but not been given anything in return.”

Despite growing up on a farm and being an active member of Ashford Young Farmers, it was only after bringing up a family and enjoying a successful career in graphic design that she returned to the land, taking on a small farm at The Dean in Sevington, near Ashford.

Her interest in all things rural led to her joining the show committee in the mid eighties, becoming chairman some 20 years later.

“Having come late to farming I wanted to learn as much as I could about agriculture, and getting involved with the cattle show was an unbeatable way of doing that,” she said. “In return I have tried to do my bit to make Ashford the fantastic show it is.”

Now 80 and having retired from the show committee “in Covid-19 times”, she still keeps Wensleydales in partnership with her daughter Stella Cosgrove and the pair will again this year be entering fleeces in the show.

Now an honorary life president of the cattle show in recognition of her work on the committee over so many years, Sandra said in 2008 that the Ashford show “just keeps getting better and better”. Fourteen years later she still believes that to be the case, praising the way the show “keeps moving forward with the times while remaining true to its history”.

And while she has stepped down from the committee, the family still has close links with the show. Daughter Stella has taken over from her mother as the chief steward for the non-agricultural classes such as the schools entries and cake baking.

FIFTY YEARS AGO…

This year’s Ashford Cattle Show also marks the 50th anniversary of an unusual event that saw a local policeman break his truncheon after a fire started at the cattle market, then just off the town centre.

It was David Martin, a market helper for many years, who spotted the fire one evening in 1972 after he had shut all the doors to the show shed and joined Geoff and Bev Pearson, Peter Austin, Tom Goldsmith’s stockman George Maskell – better known as Little George – and Ted Barnes from Chandler and Dunn for a cup of tea in the market office.

While the tea was going down well, the group decided they were hungry, so David went back to the shed to get some biscuits, at which point he spotted the flames.

He returned to the market office to alert his colleagues, and after convincing them that he wasn’t joking the group led the cattle out of the building and tied them up in the sale pens. They put the sheep and pigs in the sale ring, where they stayed while the fire was put out and the smoke cleared.

But that wasn’t the end of the drama. It emerged that a policeman who had used his truncheon to break a window had somehow also managed to break the truncheon and had to find both bits so that he could claim a new one.

AUCTIONEER PLAYED IMPORTANT PART

One man who played an important part in the Ashford Cattle Show in recent years is Mark Cleverdon, who stepped down in 2010 after some 15 years at the helm as show secretary.

Auctioneer Mark, who retired this year after exactly 27 years with Hobbs Parker, has been involved with cattle shows in the county since 1980, when he joined Ambrose and Foster (now Lambert & Foster) in Maidstone, where he sold livestock in the county town and in Rye, ran farm dispersal sales and was a prime organiser of the fatstock show at Christmas.

In 2008, when South East Farmer marked the 150th anniversary of the Ashford Cattle Show, he recalled that his earliest experience of such events had been as a child, when his father, auctioneer Basil Cleverdon, was joint secretary of Launceston (Cornwall) and District Fatstock Show Association.

Mark attended Shebbear and then Exeter Colleges before beginning his career as a cadet valuer in the valuation office in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. The role, which was with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, provided training as a chartered surveyor, at that time an essential qualification for the role.

“I didn’t work with livestock for the whole of that five-year spell. It was the only time in my career,” he recalled.

He left HMRC in his mid-twenties to join Ambrose and Foster and spent 15 years with the firm in Maidstone before moving to Ashford in August 1995 to join Hobbs Parker. He recalled: “Just a few weeks later a big red bag containing large files was deposited beside my desk after I volunteered to take the reins of the show.”

Before that his abiding memory of an Ashford show had been of a Sunday evening young farmers stock judging competition in the early eighties, after which he had to head back to Maidstone in the snow, “with conditions on the old A20 below the Downs getting worse by the minute”.

Mark is clear that the Christmas show needs to be accompanied by a sale of the stock on display.

“I have always believed strongly that showing purely for success in the ring and promoting a breed or herd just by winning prizes at Christmas is a non-runner – that’s what our full season of summer shows is for.

“The Christmas show must be different, and what makes it so is the sale of top-quality stock at a high premium price. There is no place, in my mind, for a Christmas show in the depths of winter that is not accompanied by a sale of exhibits. It is the sale, whether of the champion beast to a local butcher or wholesaler or the champion carcase or turkey to a local butcher, hotel, business or individual, that makes the Christmas prime stock show special,” he said.

Despite his retirement from full-time work this summer, it’s clear that Mark will continue to play an active role in the world of livestock across the South East for some time to come.

The man with surely one of the most recognisable voices in the region will continue to deliver his unique and expert livestock commentary at agricultural shows up and down the land, as well as playing a vital role as a long-serving committee member with the Weald of Kent Ploughing Match.

Looking back on his career, Mark commented: “I have never woken up in the morning not wanting to go to work and I have always enjoyed whatever job I have done. It’s a people business and I have loved working with people and being part of the farming community. I have made lots of great friends and I am glad that I will still meet up with them at agricultural shows and ploughing matches.”