Vron Gate Show (Shrops)

“Our traditional rural show was originally set up to showcase the best of local produce and as a great place to get the community together…The Vron Gate show has a wide number of classes for all ages to enter across home grown produce, flowers, cookery, handicrafts, photography, farming, children’s classes and much more.” Though there is no mention of it at all, ‘much more’ includes promoting hunting. A supporter mailed us to say that to their total surprise the Shropshire Hunt (the merged remnant of the North Shropshire and South Shropshire Hunts) suddenly appeared in the parade ring, spouting the usual guff about not hunting foxes and following a trail while they invited children into the ring to play with the hounds. Nothing on the website suggested the hunt would be there, though the words ‘traditional’, ‘community’, and ‘farming’ should perhaps always be seen as something a heads-up when it comes to ‘country shows’ and their anachronistic support for a ‘sport’ banned more than twenty years ago and lothed equally by both rural and urban residents. Seriously, Vron Gate, here’s something to think about: does it really help your bottom line to promote these people, or could you quite happily do without them?