Meet The Show  President

Robert Forster

Robert Forster, the President, has a long association with Slaley Show. His father was the village headmaster between 1957 and 1966 and so he was able to share the excitement when show was being assembled.Back then it was much smaller, there was just one marquee, and he was one of the many village kids who enjoyed playing inside after it had been put up.“There was always a competition to see who could climb to the top of a pole first,” he said.The show itself was very much a village affair too. That single marquee was crammed with carefully arranged flowers, immaculately presented garden vegetables, home baking exhibits which aways included intricately iced cakes, a bewildering range of scones and samples of carefully presented schoolwork. Some children showed off collections of wild grasses and farmers competed to see who could present the best ears of wheat, barley or oats.The on-field entertainment was simple as well. There was always a guess the sheep’s weight contest, a competition to see who could drive in a six inch nail with the lowest number of hammer strokes, obstacle races were popular with everyone who was careless of their dignity, and towards the end of the afternoon there would be car musical chairs with passengers sprinting to the centre of the ring to compete for an ever dwindling selection of flag poles.A little later fiercely competed sheep classes were introduced, then came horses and ponies with the mounted fancy dress proving to be a huge attraction, so a second marquee was needed and the show began to attract more people who came by car.“It is always evolving and today it is bigger that it has ever been. It still has farming and rural skills at its heart and this mix of tradition and charm has combined with its longstanding determination to be family-friendly to pull in visitors from across Northumberland, Tyneside, Wearside and Durham,” says Robert.“But this poses new challenges for a show committee which is almost entirely made up of volunteers from Slaley itself, neighbouring Hexhamshire and Healey”.“Its energy levels are astonishing and they need to be because staging this show becomes more complicated with each year that passes and both costs and regulatory demands have soared in tandem with its increased popularity too”.“I often wonder what my father and the grandfathers of many current committee members would have made of Health and Safety Regulation and the range of logistical demands generated by the surge in visitor numbers alone.”“The annual balance sheet would have given them the heebie-jeebies as well. It demands careful attention and it is because of this raising more income and at the same time keeping a lid on expenditure is demanding more of the committee’s time.”“However it and the surrounding community are proud of Slaley Show’s almost unique 170 year history. Last year I sat and watched a contented crowd of visitors begin to make their way home at the end of a busy afternoon. It was extraordinarily satisfying and I concluded that Slaley and its surrounding communities had once again reinforced their identity and, made a huge number of people happy.”“Then I crossed my fingers and hoped the show had covered its who costs as well.”