David Parkin on a show-stopping event

I’VE not been to the Great Yorkshire Show since the heyday of Welcome to Yorkshire.

The much-missed tourism organisation for the region always had a huge teepee-style marquee at the annual agricultural show right next to the Ferris wheel in the centre of the showground.

They had various events on during the day and always rounded things off with a barbecue in the evening where you would bump into some interesting characters.

Given the show is a sell out every year, I’d not been back for some time.

So when Caroline Pullich of NFU Mutual invited my wife and I to join her and partner Richard at the Great Yorkshire Show last Friday, I was excited to return.

It truly is a spectacle - 140,000 visitors over four days celebrating the very best of British agriculture.

As well as the people there are 8,500 animals exhibited including huge shire horses and neatly combed Swaledale sheep.

It is a wonderful blend of town and country where you see ruddy-faced men emerging from their cars speaking to their families like their cattle: “C’mon then, let’s get at ‘em.”

This year’s show saw a wedding take place, five national breed championships and a competition to find Britain’s fittest farmer among the highlights.

I’m not sure about showcasing fit farmers, when I have visited the GYS previously you always find women of a certain age hanging around the sheds where the horseshoeing competition takes place.

The gasps were audible as the lusty bare-chested farriers plunged a red hot horse shoe into a trough of water.

And as for Fernando…that’s another story.

The last time I went the big attraction in the main ring at the show was a horseman with flowing black hair, tight jodhpurs and white tunic unbuttoned to the waist who rode into the arena on a carriage pulled by six Stygian horses.

Well that’s what I remember seeing, but having Googled Fernando and Great Yorkshire Show, nothing comes up.

So either he’s removed himself from the internet as part of an online data purge or I’ve imagined it as some kind of homoerotic fantasy.

I’m hoping someone can also remember seeing Fernando so they can reassure me it isn’t the latter.

When I told someone that I was going to the Great Yorkshire Show, they replied by saying: “I’ve been there before, but it is always the same.”

And that’s true: the same competitions are held every year, many of the same performers are there and even the exhibitors and retailers have their tents and stands in exactly the same place every year.

But that is part of the show’s charm and its attraction to the tens of thousands of visitors that throng the broad acres of the Great Yorkshire Showground every July.

Many from rural communities use it as their opportunity to look at tractors and agricultural machinery and the chaps on the Land Rover stand told me that they had sold 12 vehicles over the show’s four days, which isn’t bad business.

You see people stocking up on boots, check shirts, red trousers and fleece gilets while the food hall was particularly thronged this year.

You can put that down to the fantastic artisan food and drinks on offer but also the fact that its air conditioning was a welcome relief from the sweltering temperatures outside.

It was nice to see Raghid Alsous of Yorkshire Dama Cheese.

He and his wife Razan came to the UK as refugees from Syria and set up a business making the ‘squeaky cheese’ they enjoyed for breakfast back home.

The business has been a great success and the couple have regularly appeared on TV, including last week when they opened their first retail outlet at the impressive new Darley Street Market in Bradford.

I called in at the Lishman’s Butchers stand but master butcher David Lishman wasn’t there on Friday, having had a busy few days selling his award-winning Yorkshire charcuterie to punters.

Allison Kane was on the Deliciously Yorkshire stand with the organisation’s chairman David Whittle.

They bang the drum for the region’s food and drink makers and showcase some incredible Yorkshire-based artisans.

Then it was back to the main arena where the annual Cock O’ The North competition takes place.

I helpfully suggested several candidates until it dawned on me that it is a showjumping event.

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YORKSHIRE Water has received a bonus for hitting ‘leakage targets’.

The figures emerged as the company imposed a hosepipe ban across the Yorkshire region last Friday, following the driest and warmest spring for 132 years.

In its annual report, Yorkshire Water said it received a £42,000 ‘reward’ for exceeding a leakage reduction target, set by the regulator Ofwat, of 15% this year.

The company has exceeded its Ofwat targets for consecutive five years, earning itself more than £800,000 in bonus payments.

In October, the Environment Agency reported that 21% of Yorkshire Water’s supplies were lost due to leakage, higher than the national average of 19%.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We outperformed our leakage target set by Ofwat and delivered a 15% reduction in leakage over the last five years, which meant we were awarded additional funds by Ofwat through the regulatory framework.

“These funds will be used to invest further in our operations. We are continuing to invest in leakage reduction, with £38m planned to be spent to further reduce leaks in the next five years.”

In the year to March 31, the company’s profits after tax rose 368% to £315.4m.

Revenue was up 6% to £1.299bn.

In that context I think we can safely say that Yorkshire Water receiving a ‘leakage bonus’ of 42 grand is a drop in the ocean.

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PLANS to convert an historic listed building in York to create "the largest independent bookshop to open in England in living memory" have been given the green light.

Topping & Company Booksellers submitted plans to City of York Council earlier this year for the alteration and refurbishment of the grade II-listed 1 Museum Street building which dates from 1860 and used to be a register office.

The property was most recently used as the city's primary Tourist Information Centre, following its purchase by York Conservation Trust in 2010, but has been vacant since 2021.

Planners had recommended that councillors refuse the planning application because of concerns over harm to the listed building.

But at a meeting this week the city council’s planning committee voted unanimously to approve the application to create what will be the largest bookshop in York and one of the biggest in the country.

Topping & Company currently operates bookshops in Edinburgh, Bath, Ely and St Andrews.

It said the new location would create “30 positions”.

In that case they better stock up on copies of the Kama Sutra.

Have a great weekend.