The Nidderdale Show will be moved from its traditional Monday after the Queen’s funeral was announced.
Having been set for Monday, September 19, the show’s organisers swiftly made plans to rearrange following the death of the monarch on Thursday.
When her funeral date was confirmed for the same day, the show committee announced it would be moved to the day before, Sunday, September 18.
It is the first time the show has been held since 2019, having been called off because of covid for the last two years.
Usually attracting crowds of around 15,000, organisers said they were looking forward to seeing the response from the public after the long break.
PR officer Alex Smith told the Stray Ferret:
“We were really looking forward to coming back so we knew we wanted to rearrange once the funeral date was confirmed.
“We’re so pleased we can go ahead, even though it’s a different day. Perhaps it will be a good thing, being on the Sunday for the first time – we just don’t know.
“We’re hoping as many people as possible will come along and join us on the new date.”
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Nidderdale Show is seen by many as the close of the show season in the district. It features traditional agriculture classes, as well as those for handicrafts, home produce and more.
Tickets are £15 on the gate or £12.50 in advance from the website, and children under 16 go free. Entries for most classes have now closed, but are welcome for show jumping and dry stone walling on the day of the show.
Anyone who had booked to attend or entered the classes can attend on Sunday using the same tickets. The only change to the schedule is the dog show, which has had to be called off because the judges are not available.
Anyone who had booked and cannot attend on Sunday can either transfer their tickets or entry to next year’s show, or can have a refund. Organisers have asked that people do not apply for refunds until after the show when they will be able to process the requests.
Memoirs of former Ripon mayor to raise money for charityThe current Mayor of Ripon recommends that people have a hanky at the ready, when they read John Richmond’s keenly-awaited memoirs.
Councillor Eamon Parkin, First Citizen of the ancient city, received an advance copy of the former mayor’s book, Beyond the Farm Gate on Wednesday.
He told the Stray Ferret:
“I just couldn’t put it down, it is beautifully written and made me both laugh and cry and I’m sure it will similarly affect anyone fortunate enough to obtain a copy.”
Cllr Parkin, added:
“Poignant passages, telling of sad events in John’s life, are balanced with comical episodes, told with a Tyke’s sense of humour. As I read the book, I was wiping tears of sorrow and laughter from my eyes.”
Adding to the poignancy of the work, by 86-year-old first-time author John, is the fact that it is dedicated to his late and beloved wife, Barbara, to whom he was married for 55 years. She died of breast cancer in July 2013.
Supporting Breast Cancer UK
All proceeds from the sale of the limited edition book will go to Breast Cancer UK and it is hoped that £6,000 will be raised for the charity.
John, who was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to the community in the 2021 New Year’s Honours, has been working on the book for four years and said:
“I received considerable help from Sheila Whitfield, an expert in memoir writing, who gave me advice after I met her through the University of the Third Age.“
The 280-page book, which includes highlights from John’s work in business and local politics, starts by taking the reader on a transatlantic journey from rural North Yorkshire to the streets of San Francisco.
In the mid 1970s, he was invited to represent the world’s first and foremost city of Ripon, at the USA’s bi-centennial celebrations, attended by the mayors of the younger Ripons in America.
In stark contrast to the glitz of California, John turns the clock back to the 1930s, to give an insight into the hard labours of life at Carr House farm on the edge of Dallowgill, where he was born in 1935.
He pointed out:
“There was no running water, no electricity or gas, no bathroom or inside toilet and we washed the muck from our scalps and skin while sitting in a big cast iron bath in the side scullery.”
A heart-breaking tragedy on the farm
A heart-breaking event from John’s childhood has lived with him for 80 years and still brings tears to his eyes.
“We had a wonderful black mare that we called Old Bess. She was a war horse, who served her country in France during the the first world war and came to us with a bullet hole in her front left foot.
“A special shoe was made, so that she was able to pull wagons without feeling pain, but tragically, one day, when she was drinking water from a ditch on the farm, she slipped and fell in.
“It was a pitiful sight for my parents, seeing her struggling to get up and she eventually had to be pulled out with harnesses attached to two horses, but she had suffered terrible injuries.
“My mother comforted her in her final hours and Old Bess was humanely put to sleep the following morning.”
A life-long animal lover
That ingrained memory has shaped John’s life as an animal lover and to this day he, and fellow volunteers, are involved in the daily feeding of stray cockerels that have been abandoned on the moors near Kirkby Malzeard.
Animal lover John and a team of like-minded volunteers feed the stray birds
Making history as a hornblower
On a much happier, though at the time flat note, John’s memoirs recount the story of a hastily-made offer that he soon regretted.
It was winter 1975 and Ripon’s sole hornblower told the city council that he wanted to take a Christmas break. But who would take over during his absence to ensure that the nightly ceremony of setting of the watch was maintained?
John made history when he became the only Mayor of Ripon to act as a hornblower while in mayoral office
John said:
“With all other councillors sitting on their hands as I chaired the meeting, in a fit of pique, I said, if none of you will do it, I’ll have to do it.”
He made an offer that he wasn’t sure he could properly fulfil, particularly after he attempted his first blow in the privacy of the mayor’s parlour.
However, after secret practice sessions in the bowels of the town hall under instruction from the city’s then Sergeant at Mace and former hornblower, Cyril Hawley, John perfected the pout and summoned up the necessary puff to get a blast out of the horn.
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Book availability
Beyond the Farm Gate, which costs £15, is available at various outlets, including The Little Ripon Bookshop, on Westgate, the Mason’s Arms, Bishop Monkton and from Kirkby Malzeard historian Tony Sinfield.
On Thursday lunchtime John will be at Ripon Golf Club signing copies of the book for club members and members of the public.
His memoirs can also obtained by calling 01765 607096.
‘Mr Ripon’ needs help to feed abandoned cockerels
Few people know about ‘Cockerel Corner’, but a former mayor of Ripon can often be seen feeding the hungry birds that congregate at an otherwise unremarkable bend in a moorland road.
Up to 30 abandoned birds respond to the blast of John Richmond’s car horn, emerging from the scrubby terrain and eagerly flapping over walls.
A cacophony of crowing greets Mr Richmond, nicknamed ‘Mr Ripon’ due to his decades of service to the city, as he throws corn, bread and greens to the Bantams, Leghorn/Rhode Island crosses and Plymouth Rock cockerels.
Feeding the flock is an act of kindness that reminds the 85-year-old of growing up in a farming family across the moor at Dallowgill – but he needs volunteers to help out.
Mr Richmond said:
“I took over feeding them when my cousin Ken Ellis became too unwell to do it.
“He started tending to the cockerels a few years ago and their number has grown.
“It wouldn’t be right to let them starve, so I come up several times a week. They are fed by others on days when I’m not here.”
Feeding time at ‘Cockerel Corner’: John Richmond BEM attends to hungry birds.
It is believed that the birds have been released into the wild to fend for themselves because they are surplus to requirements.
Mr Richmond said:
“Farmers only need a limited number of cockerels.
“After being reared as chicks, they are a few months old before it is known whether they are male or female.
“By then, they are too tough to eat.”
To offer to help with the flock, people can call 01765 607096.
Between regular visits to the moors, Mr Richmond is making revisions to his debut book.
The Stray Ferret has been given a pre-publication preview of his entertaining, humorous and informative autobiography, which takes the reader on a journey from the moorland farm of his childhood to municipal service in Ripon.
Highlights include the key role that Mr Richmond played as a newly elected independent county councillor in ensuring its ancient grammar school did not become a comprehensive.
During his year of office in 1976, Mr Richmond represented the city (at his own expense) at the bicentennial celebrations in the USA. He was present along with the mayors of Ripon in California and Ripon, Wisconsin.
He has the distinction of being the only serving mayor to take on the role of Ripon Hornblower, and was awarded the British Empire Medal in January.
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An important element running throughout Mr Richmond’s book is the time spent with Barbara, his wife of 55 years, who died in 2013. He said:
“She was my driving force and I wouldn’t have achieved anything without her.”