Happy 30th birthday, Turnpike Showground!

The Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show might be approaching its centenary, but it’s 30 years since it moved to a permanent home at Turnpike Showground.

Gillingham Agricultural Society’s show started near Station Road, and in 1909 moved to Harry Allard’s field at the top of Hardings Lane. Shaftesbury’s show also changed locations several times, from the livestock market to various fields, including Reg Burton’s farm at Barton Hill next to Christy’s Lane – now covered with houses, but one of the streets is named Fair Field!

In 1930 the two societies merged, and the show alternated between Gillingham and Shaftesbury. After a couple of very wet Gillingham shows, a new site at Stock was found, belonging to Arthur Brain, but a larger site was soon required so the show moved across the road onto land belonging to Bob Light, Herbert Green and Gerry Sanger.

Shaftesbury outgrew the Barton Hill site and moved to Canfield Farm,

Regrettably there are no pictures of the ground in original condition. This is the first picture taken from the Main Gate, and shows how wet the ground can be

Trevor Trim with a proper Case tractor and trailer – the soil being moved was to fill the depressions and to level up important areas home of the Young family. This was a very large level field site that made an ideal showground – except all traffic had to use a single approach road, with the inevitable problems of long traffic queues. The show would probably still be at Canfield but for Dorset County

Council’s plan to build a by-pass for Spread Eagle Hill and Melbury Abbas, which would have crossed the show site – the county is still waiting for the bypass!

After much discussion, the search was on for a permanent showground. In 1993 the Society took the bold step of purchasing 90 acres at Manor Farm, Motcombe. This was not without its critics – one leading land agent complained that it was “the wettest and roughest land in North Dorset”. And it was quite true – it hadn’t been farmed in years, the hedges were overgrown,

In go the drainage pipes: Lew Pearce at the controls of the chain bucket excavator with Dennis Pearce assisting as they dig a narrow trench just wide enough to drop in the pipe about a metre deep. Then it is filled in with 1½ clean stone, to enable the surface water to soak down to the pipe and into the ditch some of the ditches were filled with builders’ rubble, and worse still there were long depressions across the main field – a bit like traditional water meadows … only deeper … and wider.

It might have been the most unlikely site for a show ground, but the access and location were ideal. Brian Young and local contractor Lou Pearce led the transformation. They worked on the drainage, filled the depressions, levelled the land and prepared it for the first show. After nearly two years of hard work, Turnpike Showground was ready. Today, Turnpike Showground is a bustling hub for the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show and is used all year round for other events. Here’s to 30 years of memories and many more to come!

Building the cattle lines was very labour intensive, and for years the wooden posts, rails and sheep hurdles had been auctioned off after the show each year. Then the decision to store in a box trailer meant rails and posts split and points snapped off.

Eventually, it was decided to install permanent rows of concrete posts and galvanised steel water pipes. The build team, l to r - Roy

‘They said it went down better if it were raining’ – Sam Braddick seems quite happy going back and forth from Main Gate towards Gate 2

If you watch sheep judging at an agricultural show like the Gillingham & Shaftesbury, you will always see the judge standing behind the animal, bending over, hands on knees, looking straight at its woolly bottom.

The judge is making sure the sheep is ‘standing square – with all four legs at a corner,’ says experienced Texel judge Mark Blakeney, who farms near Mere with his flock of about 50 Texels.

Judges also look for a good mouth and teeth – ‘so they can graze grass well.’

They check if the animal has straight legs – no knock knees allowed! – and that it stands well on its feet.

Preparing Texels for showing is a fairly easy job, and they are relatively straightforward for the judge: they are what is known as carcase sheep, ie. bred for meat not wool – although it is good wool, says Mark. Preparing sheep with more wool, such as the picturesque Lincoln Long Wool, is much more demanding on the showman – and the judge.

If you don’t know what a Texel is, they are a medium-sized, white-faced breed with no wool on the head or legs, and are now the most popular breed in this country. It is also the most expensive sheep to buy and rear, as the blood lines are tightly controlled – on 28th August 2020 a world record price of £368,000 for a sheep was set after a six-month-old Texel ram was sold during the Scottish National Texel Sale. The breed originates from the island of Texel, the largest of the Wadden Islands off the north coast of the Netherlands. They have been bred and farmed in the UK for around 50 years.

Preparing sheep with more wool, such as the picturesque Lincoln Long Wool, is much more demanding on the showman – and the judge.

Mark Blakeney comes from a family with livestock connections – his father ran Case & Sons, the former bacon factory and abattoir at Motcombe – but he is a first-generation farmer.

‘I was set on being a farmer,’ he says. ‘Texels were the up and coming breed when I started.’ He’s worked with them for more than 20 years.

The business of becoming a judge is down to the shepherd’s showing experience –after a few years of successful showing, someone will suggest you might have a go at judging. Mark took up the challenge when asked, and has now been a Texel judge for ten years.

Sheep with more wool – like these Swiss Valais Black Nose who were winners at the 2023 G&S show –require more demanding preparation for judging