PERFECT summer conditions in upper Teesdale meant that the Swaledale sheep on show at Langdon Beck were in top condition as they went before the judges on Saturday.
The annual late summer show attracted the usual high standard of entries from shepherds as well as those exhibiting in the produce and industrial tent.
After long deliberations from the judges, Tom, Kay and Hetty Hutchinson, of Bail Hill Farm, in Forest in Teesdale, won the supreme championship – a first for the family.
The show came just days after the new tenants of Langdon Beck Hotel moved in and they brought a bar to the showfield to quench the thirst of the farmers and spectators, while the children enjoyed ice creams and a bouncy castle.
It was a perfect end to a perfect summer for upper dale farmers, said show chairman Neville Bainbridge.
He said: “The summer has been one of the best – the grass has just grown and grown. We were getting lots of run off from the top of the Pennines while everyone else was in drought. If you went below High Force, it was in drought but conditions were ideal here.”
So kind was the weather to upper Teesdale that Mr Bainbridge cut a second crop of hay. He added: “That’s the first time ever I have done that. I got 79 bales in the first cut and 34 in the second. It’s very unusual.”
Although entry numbers were down slightly, the quality of sheep was as good as ever, he added.
“It’s still very hard to win a ticket,” Mr Bainbridge said.
