Meet The  Industrial Section Secretaries

Margaret Rowell and Catherine Myers

Collectively Margaret Rowell and Catherine Myers have been industrial secretaries for 36 years. This mother and daughter Slaley farming family combo organise and process up to 1,000 entries every year of baking, crafts, countryside and photography classes which are hugely popular to visitors to the show. Margaret began to help at the show in 1989 when there were just 80 classes. Catherine joined her as joint secretary in 2010 and in recent years they have expanded the section to 120.The family had been entering show classes for 50 years at least at that point. “Slaley show was always the highlight of the school summer holidays” says Catherine “Mam spent days baking, my brother and I spent hours with my grandma collecting wild fruits, flowers, and grasses for the children's section and making miniature gardens. Our children have followed in our footsteps and from now on their grandchildren will be involved. It’s a family tradition”. “We try to change the theme of some classes every year to represent events relevant to the year, sport, royal occasions or any other topical events” says Catherine. “This year the under 16 collective exhibit of a flower arrangement, a drink, a cooked item and decoration is entitled ‘Women’s Rugby World Cup’ and the dressed peg doll in the handicraft section is dressed for VE day. New classes in the Baking section include a dairy-free cake, a pair of meringues and the Brownies can also now be Blondies. We were pleased with the response we got when we introduced the Men’s baking class a couple of years ago and now, we find that they are winning more in general classes including the most hotly contested cheese scone class. Scones are very popular classes, as are jams and preserves. Last year’s jam winner received the highest judges compliment we’ve ever known as being the best jam she had ever tasted. It’s all highly competitive but great fun and visitors clamour to see the results when the tents re-open in the afternoon. There’s always a queue!”