Archived News

22nd May 2014

The Surrey County Show will be held at Stoke Park in Guildford on Bank holiday Monday.  This year a feature of the show will be the impact of World War 1 on farming.

The annual show has been held here by the Surrey County Agricultural Society (SCAS) since 1954.

The Society also organises farm, crop and countryside stewardship competitions as well as the County Ploughing Match and Country Fair in September.

A large band of volunteers from all walks of life with an interest in farming, horses and the countryside group together each year to enable all these SCAS events to take place. 

A key role is that of the many stewards who are responsible for the visiting livestock which arrive the day before the show and are settled into the livestock marquees. Stewards may look after one or two breeds, ensuring that everything runs smoothly as each class enters the judging ring and that all the paperwork and rosettes are prepared for each judge.

There’s always quite a buzz later in the day when all the livestock are walked through the crowd to the main ring for the Grand Parade.

Laurence has been a steward for 35 years now, and Christopher and George are following in his footsteps as Laurence followed his own father.

This sort of dedication by the stewards and other volunteers led to the SCAS being awarded The Queen’s Award for voluntary Service; the MBE for volunteer groups and Laurence, George and Christopher each received the award.