The Royal Lancashire Show 21st – 23rd July
Thinking about this weekend now always reminds me of the ‘80’s pop band Wet Wet Wet because the three days at the show can be legitimately described as wet, wet, wet and then some.
On the first day, Friday, the advance party was led by our Branch President and Master Craftsman Carl Watson and his two young apprentices Jack and Jamie with Kathy ably backing the chaps up. Carl reported on the Friday evening that they had used all the four tonnes of stone delivered and had had lots of interest from the public despite it being a very wet day.
Saturday’s two car convoy was made up of of John S, Peter T and myself with Lee and Bev arriving a little later after a much-needed lie-in following a night out gigging – old rockers never die.
Our pitch was somewhat on the tight side and the conditions underfoot were decidedly muddy and not improved by constant rain which made for less-than-ideal working conditions so Lee and Bev continued the building – a further six ton of stone delivered over night and Pete set up his wonderful children’s Dry Stone Wall; John went off to find somebody to talk to and I manned the stall. On John’s return we fired up the barbie, put the kettle on the stove and waited for the bacon and sausage sarnies to appear. Lurvley. The morning punter traffic was slow but all the people we spoke to were genuinely interested in our craft and the Children’s wall brought us much attention. The youngsters loved it.
The Sunday team consisted of myself, John, with Lee and Bev and making her debut appearance at the RLS was Eve and a what a sterling addition to the team she was. The day proved to be the wettest of the three and it was truly miserable but with the barbie on the go, Bev’s pies and a whistling kettle we were kept suitably fed and watered. Despite the inclement conditions visitor numbers were good and we handed out lots of course flyers.
At 2pm we were advised by Event staff that the Show was to close early at 3pm and given that we had a gazebo and lots of additional kit to load we started the take-down immediately. Bev and Lee were in the process of building a stairway in to the wall and credit where its due they stuck at it despite the lousy weather. Terrific work. Even as we took down visitors were still approaching us to ask about the craft of Dry Stone Walling.
Despite the Show closing at 3pm we did not get away until after 5pm. Some delays were doubtless down to the conditions with even four by fours requiring tractor pull-offs but one particular hold up was the result of an argy-bargy at the exit with a visitor wanting to turn right when the only option available was left. This stand-off lasted half an hour and the team was not happy.
All in all I believe we had a good show, we spoke to a lot of people, discussed courses and availability with them all and generally presented the Branch and the Association in a positive manner.
Many thanks to our Secretary and National Chairman Paul Clayton for the very professional name badges which fortunately proved to be wet weather resistant and hat tip to Ian and Dot who popped by to say hello on a grim part of a foreshortened Sunday. On behalf of Lancashire Branch thanks to all who turned out to assist and to Jack and Jamie who I hope enjoyed their first RLS. To Eve, I hope we didn’t put you off.
Paul Stevenson.
