Skipton (cruising up the junction)

Moored in the centre of Skipton

The Gargrave Show is held every year in August and it always seems to be the weekend after our annual family camping holiday to Gordale Scar.  After packing up camp and setting off to our various homes we always pass the showground and it’s a bustle of activity with all the preparations. 

As we have been living up here over this summer we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the show this year so on Saturday morning we set off for the showground.  The weather really seems to have broken in the north; no more mugginess or sun and most days seem to have drizzle at some point.  The organisers of the show were lucky, even though it was cloudy, the rain held off and it wasn’t too cold.

We watched the cattle judging for a while and were pleased to find the judges had microphones and would explain to the onlookers their reasoning for making their selections.  We have to admit that we didn’t understand all the terminology but tended to get the general gist of it.

The top three Holstein-Friesians with the judge having a joke with the handlers

It tickled us that the handlers were the same height as their cattle 😊

Friesians are bred for their milk production and I hadn’t realised that 90% of the milk in the United States is sourced from the breed.

A rather fine Jersey cow being shown off

There was the obligatory children’s’ corner with pens of tame farm animals and Buddy and one of the sheep seemed to get on well:

  

The temporary shelter where the cattle were being prepared was a hive of activity with last minute touches being made.

Those that had already been judged were happily laying down munching on fresh hay

Next it was the sheep judging:

  

Unfortunately, the judges here didn’t have microphones, so we couldn’t learn what they were looking for.  The handlers certainly seemed to know though and were constantly preening and fluffing their sheep and making them stand correctly.

This gentleman was really concerned that the wool wasn’t standing correctly on his tup whilst waiting for the judge

After the sheep it was a trip round the obligatory craft and produce displays followed by show jumping.  Neither of us are really into horses but we went to the main ring to watch one of the classes during their jump off.

Typical Yorkshire summer weather – everyone has coats on

By the time the fell races started, the timetable had slipped by nearly an hour, so the poor runners had had to wait around before they could set off. There were several age groups starting with the eight and unders.  Although this group didn’t run up to the top of the fells they still ran a fair distance and were amazingly competitive.

The winner of the eight and unders – their course had been to the top of the green hill behind the trees and back

Barnoldswick was well represented and the boy above was from their running club.  Locals used to call the town Barlick as can be seen on the lad's running vest.  Talking to some people we have found that the original name is now creeping back into favour and the younger generation are reverting to calling it Barnoldswick.

The eleven and unders setting off at quite a pace

After lunch we went back to Skipton to meet Polly at the station.  Polly had come up for the weekend to see her grandparents.

Polly and my mum

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning were spent with my parents and Polly left soon after lunch on Sunday to get back to Reading.

We decided to have a little cruise once she had gone and moved about two hundred yards into the centre of Skipton.  The spot at the end of the Springs branch where we had moored on our previous two visits here over the last couple of months wasn’t free, so we ended up mooring at the junction on the main line. Not the shortest cruise we have ever had, and at least it was through one swing bridge, but it should keep Chris Hutchins on his toes vying for recording short cruises 😉

Moored at the junction

Sunday evening sky so typical of recent days