Agricultural show ticket

 

I've been busy recently, so posts are going to be a bit random until I can get back into a project. Let's start with this ticket picked up at the same time as the GWR string. 

The show in question is the event that eventually became known as "The Royal Show". It was the country's premier agricultural event from 1839 to 2009. 

Now, I know the event because every year, the traffic to it would clog up all the roads around here as conoys of Range Rovers and horse boxes tried to get onto the Stoneleigh Park site. I even worked there a couple of times when employed by the Ministry of Agriculture. Based in a scruffy Portakabin, I did paperwork stuff in the less fashionable, and much smellier part of the event. 

I think I visited a couple of times, but as a trade show for farmers, and not being in the market for a combine harvester, it didn't grab me as much as the public focussed Town & Country Festival at the August bank holiday. 

Anyway, this ticket interested me because it was for a local event, but also because for many years the show travelled around the country. As it happened, 1931 was Warwick's turn to host it - and then it returned permenantly to the county from 1963. 

What we don't know is why Mr Hall needed to attend the event, although at the time there would be a large amount of livestock moved by rail. Maybe he was checking animals in and out then back to the railhead. Perhaps looking at new methods of livestock handling. We'll never know, but 91 years later, his ticket still exists.