The sun shines for showtime!
The Westmorland County Show takes place every autumn at the Westmorland County Showground on the fringes of the Lake District.
Hosted by the Westmorland County Agricultural Society, it’s one of the biggest agricultural shows in the northwest of England, attracting 30,000 visitors over two days.
Not only is it a major livestock show with classes for sheep, cattle, pigs, goats and alpacas, there are also all kinds of other activities going on to enjoy, too, such as show jumping, Cumberland & Westmorland Wresting, axe throwing and chainsaw carving!
With plenty of marquees to peruse, too, such as the Food Hall where you can buy local artisan products, a Rural Craft have-a-go area, a Learning for Life zone and even a creche for the kids, it’s no wonder this show attracts people of all ages from far and wide.
With team LIFE R4ever Kent t-shirts and hoodies, project banners and leaflets still hot off the press, we were excited to arrive at the show a day early to set up our stand. Unfortunately, we’d managed to pack two halves of two different marquees (doh!), but eventually managed to cobble together a passable stand…
To lure in the 30,000 potential passers-by, we adorned our stand with handcrafted fish bunting, a giant cardboard mussel and plenty of informative boards and pictures. For the kids, we set up a badge-making station and a table for drawing, colouring in and word puzzles.
Over two days, we spoke to over 200 people, of all ages and from all walks of life. We made badges with school children from around the River Kent catchment and beyond, we shared knowledge with students from Lancaster University, we put the world to rights with farmers and landowners from around the UK and we discussed local matters with local residents.
Aided by our large project banners and informative leaflets, we talked about the River Kent Special Area of Conservation (SAC), its species and why they need our help. We discussed biosecurity and invasive non-native species, and why anyone moving from catchment to catchment needs to be mindful.
We talked about our conservation and restoration work, generating interest and enthusiasm, which resulted in signing up many new subscribers to our newsletter and volunteers for our upcoming volunteer days.
Before we knew it, the show was over and it was time to pack up and head home, but what a wonderful time we’d had! It was fantastic to meet so many new people and welcome so many of you to the project, and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.
If you’d like to catch up with us, we’ve just announced our Calendar of volunteer opportunities 2023-2024, if you’d like to come along to a volunteer day and get involved with some conservation work. What’s more, we’re running two free workshops in November – you can book your tickets here.
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