Around 5,000 people headed for Witton Park in Blackburn to support attempts at reviving the much lamented Royal Lancashire Show.
Around 5,000 people headed for Witton Park in Blackburn to support attempts at reviving the much lamented Royal Lancashire Show.
In recent years it has been staged in Chorley, Salmesbury and Myerscough but bad weather dogged it wherever it went. Flooding became such a regular event that the show was scrapped. However, a small team was determined this would not happen.
John Horrocks, the chairman of the Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society, along with Paul Roberts, the show director, and Geoff Goodspeed, assistant show director, backed by Blackburn with Darwen Council, decided to revive the event.
Over the years, the Royal Lancs has been held in July and it has been seen by gardeners and amateur weather forecasters as a sure sign of impending rain. With this in mind the new team decided to go for May.
As Geoff pointed out: ‘It doesn’t rain much in May.’ And he was right and large crowds enjoyed a fantastic day out.
Words and photography: John Lenehan
