For more than 150 years, this Northumberland country show has symbolised the closing of the agricultural year and the time for hill farmers to begin preparations for winter, says Anthony Toole
DAY OUT: Alwinton Border Shepherds’ Show, Northumberland
In its upper reaches, the valley of the Coquet, Northumberland’s second river, squeezes between the fell sandstones of the Harbottle hills and the steep slopes of the Cheviot volcanics. Its atmosphere fluctuates from a near silence, broken by river-trickle and birdsong, to the rattle of machine-gun fire and muffled thud of ordnance from the adjacent Otterburn military range.
On 8 October, after a three-year absence, this will give way to the boisterous yet quite serious conviviality of the 154th Alwinton Border Shepherds’ Show. This tiny community, which some might even think too small to call a village, will close the agricultural year on what is effectively the only large field area in this part of the valley.
PRIZE EVENTS
All skills and talents are on display, from cake-making and knitting to gardening, drawing, photography, flower -arranging and traditional country crafts such as walking-stick carving.
All age groups are catered for and competition for prizes is fierce. In the masochism of fell racing, even the elderly, as well as children, are eligible for quite significant financial rewards, while competitors in the imported activity of Cu
