Thornton-le-Dale Show is bigger and better than ever – but just as big as it wants to be, reports DAVID JEFFELS

PROBABLY the best and biggest in its 93 year history – that was the verdict on yesterday’s Thornton-le-Dale Show. It attracted record crowds and entries and the showground was almost packed to capacity.

Chairman Martin Blythe said: “We have had a record 170 trade stands and stalls. There has been something for all the family – and that is what our show is all about.”

Car parking was at a premium, despite an extra field being made available, as an estimated 16,000 people packed the fields which have been the show’s home for decades. “We have now reached our optimum capacity level,” said Martin. “We don’t want to get any bigger because our role is as a traditional village agricultural and horticultural show.”

Entries in virtually every class were up on last year, with only those in the horticultural sections being down due to the wet summer. “Even so they were still very high both in numbers and quality.”

While the show, which costs some £45,000 to stage, does not seek to maximise its profit, any surplus funds are distributed within the local community, said Martin.

Wilton village hall, which is raising funds to provide indoor toilets in what was formerly the village school, has already received £5,000 and could be in line for a further donation. In recent years Thornton-le-Dale Primary School has been given £10,000 and the village cricket club £500 to buy a new mower.

Coun Janet Sanderson, who won seven first prizes in the gardening section, said: “It has been a tremendous success. So many people in the village work so hard and it is credit to them that so many people came to enjoy it.”

One of the biggest successes was in the sheep section, where smallholder Alfred Pink and his 19-year-old grandson, Matthew, a student at Askham Bryan College , lifted the reserve champion and a first-class prize for their Hampshire Down sheep, an old native British breed which is making a comeback.

The shepherds’ crooks and walking stick classes also saw record entries of 250, and 14 classes had to be created. Chief steward Bill Gent, of Cropton, said: “You would not see a better display of crooks and walking sticks at any show in Britain. They were splendid.”