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Tuesday
15th June 2004
The History of the Three Counties show |
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prize winning cow, or is it a bull? |
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It's
one of the biggest events of the year in Herefordshire and Worcestershire
and can be traced right back to 1794. |
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See
our gallery of archive pictures from the Three Counties Show.
All
pictures with kind permission of the Three Counties Agricultural
Society |
Around 100,000 people will visit the Three Counties showground over
the three days of the show, and livestock owners will be competing
for prizes worth more than £70,000.
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| A
school outing to the show |
The origins
of the show can be traced right back to 1797 and John Clerk.
In a book, with the eye-catching title of General Views on Agriculture
in the County of Hereford, he pointed out that there was no agricultural
society in the county.
This clearly struck a chord with the local farmers as a society was
formed the same year.
They held their first Show in 1798 on the streets of Hereford, with
the event being overseen by the Earl of Oxford.
There was no money on offer as a prize in those days, but there were
three splendid silver goblets to be won.
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| Dogs
being judged at the show |
Momentum
for a bigger show began to develop when the Herefordshire Society
merged first with Worcestershire, in 1894, and Gloucestershire in
1922. The result was the Three Counties Agricultural Society, and
the show of the same name.
It wasn't until 1958 that the show got its permanent home in the shadow
of the Malvern Hills.
Before that the show was staged at a many different locations including
Abervagenny, Monmouth, Kidderminster and Droitwich, Worcester’s Pitchcroft
and Spetchley Park and Staverton Airport in Gloucestershire.
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