From the London Illustrated News 24 July 1847
The Annual Meeting of this great and truly national society commenced on Tuesday morning at Northampton
The newspaper report continues:
“The Exhibition has surpassed all preceding ones in extent. The railway companies led by the way by announcing they would convey implements &c for exhibition, free of charge from any part of England to Northampton, and upwards of 500 tons weight of implements and machinery arrived during the week and were safely delivered at the station from whence they were carefully removed to the show-yard under the superintendence of Mr Roadster, the local agents of Messrs Pickford and Messrs Worstser and Co and Mr T Shaw of Northampton. The arrivals of livestock have also been larger than before”.
Northampton Station
The place of exhibition was the Racecourse and comprised an area of eighteen acres with 37 sheds each for the livestock and for the implements. Around the Exhibition yard and about the Racecourse there was “a very large congregation of refreshment booths, toy and fruit stalls, shows of all kinds of curiosities, all of which were as gay and brilliant as they could be made by hangings of red, blue and yellow cambric and flags and streamers”.
“The heavy land was so tough and stubborn, on account of the long drought for all but the best implements and many a harrow and scarifier was broken into pieces. The number of steam engines and steaming apparatus was greater than at any of the former meetings”.
“The public exhibition of the working of the light land implements took place on the fields of Mr Seaby and Mr Green adjoining the racecourse and that of the heavy land implements at the farm of Mr Pickering of Moulton Park”.
Towards the evening the crowd began to move towards the Racecourse, others flocked into the town for dinner and many for the purpose of attending The Practical Discussion which opened at 5 o’clock by the Rev A Huxtable reading a paper in All Saints Parochial Schoolroom on the Growth of Turnips by means of artificial manures. “Bones he maintained formed the best manure but as they required a series of years for their decomposition, it was necessary to employ the use of sulphuric acid to effect it”.
In the newspaper article there then follows a list of the award of the Judges of Implements:- For the best scarifier £10 – Messrs Sharman & Co, Wellingborough: For the best corn dressing machine £15 – Mr Cooch, Harlestone (and many others but the remainder came from out of the county).
On Wednesday the main business was the examination of the livestock and awarding
of the prizes. The total number of animals exhibited was 459. (The newspaper lists all the prize winners).
“On Thursday, throughout the day Northampton was crowded with visitors who poured in by every old inlet, whilst the railway trains were loaded to excess. The great attraction was the Cattle Show which was thrown open at six o’clock in the morning and from that early hour till one o’clock, the number of visitors, who paid 2s 6d for admission was 11,000. The charge was then reduced to 1sh. And the exhibition yards were almost instantaneously choked up with visitors. The opinion of competent judges was that the Show was the best the Society had made”. Overall the number admitted to the show on Thursday was 22,090.
The Show Dinner commenced at 3pm after a parade through the town led by a band. Over 1,100 sat down for the dinner – and there were many speeches, plaudits and toasts – but I haven’t been able to find out what was on the menu! Nor how they managed to cater for that many people!
Reports of the show appeared in many other provincial newspapers as far afield as Lincoln, Kent, Sussex and many in between. The London Daily News reports: “On Thursday full enough the town was before but the influx today has been so great that there can hardly said to be walking room in the streets. Equestrians, charioteers and pedestrians have been flocking in from the surrounding district since daybreak in as many continuous streams as there are inlets to Northampton and the trains from London, Peterborough, Birmingham and Derby were loaded to excess”
Additional information:
Bearing in mind that the population of Northampton town just 6 years earlier in the 1841 census was only 21, 242, the influx of visitors to the show doubled the population. Additionally, the Racecourse at that time would have been on the outskirts of the town, the area had yet to be developed for housing so that population would have been squeezed into the four historic parishes of St Giles, All Saints, St Sepulchre and St Peter.
Planning for the event seems to have started early.
Northampton Mercury: Saturday 29 May
A public meeting was held to organise preliminary arrangements for the show. They formed a Lodging Committee and in order to prevent visitors from being imposed upon by excessive charges have fixed the prices of beds as follows:
First Class 10s 6d Second Class 7s 6d Third Class 5sh
They also set up a Railway Committee and a Land Approaches Committee. “Gentleman requiring corn in the straw or other produce &c for the trial of implement or who are willing to supply what is required are required to communicate with the Committee as soon as possible. The Booths and Stallage Committee and Horticulture Committee were also formed. The latter had to make arrangements for the exhibitors “as well as the numerous assemblage of ladies that are expected to attend”.
The Northampton Mercury of 9 June states that
“The sheds are already being erected on the Racecourse and the pavilion of ‘gigantic dimensions’ is being erected in Mr Manning’s close in Waterloo for the grand dinner. The town too is putting on its best looks. Never since the day it rose as a Phoenix from its ashes, did it look so new! Everybody is painting and whitewashing and putting in metropolitan looking shop fronts, with plate grass windows and not a few houses have actually been new fronted with considerable pretensions to architectural ornament. Northampton, always remarkable as a clean, good looking town, seems bent upon enhancing its reputation and sending its visitors to spread its praises all England over”.
“We understand that the contract for the dinner has been given to the Messrs Higgins of the George Hotel. On the Wednesday of the Show Week there is to be a grand ball at the George Assembly Rooms. Nearly all the nobility of the immediate neighbourhood, the Lord Lieutenant and the President of the Royal Agricultural Society have given their names as stewards”.
There were nightly music shows at the Great Concert Hall in Newland. Messrs Freeman & Sons, printers, booksellers and stationers of Market Square announced that they have published A Visitor’s Guide to the Show. “The work is beautifully illustrated with numerous lithographic view and engravings and contains a new map of the town upon which all the Inns, Public Buildings, Pavilion and Show Yard are shown together with every information the visitor may require”.
A week after the Show the following advertisement appeared in the local paper: “The building materials of the pavilion and show yard consisting of 1,000 iron hurdles, deals, planks, 3,000 feet of deal fencing, shedding, sheeting and floor cloths and twelve stained glass windows and three portable cottage, suitable for shooting or hunting lodges will be sold by Auction of 4th and 5th August and the sale of the Pavilion on 10 August”.
For Northampton folk this must have been a momentous occasion. One can only imagine from the descriptions in the newspapers how crowded the town must have been. But what excitement especially with all the different side stalls, musical events, jugglers, acrobats and other attractions and more! The inns and public houses would surely have done a brisk trade. Of course, it was not all frivolity – it was an opportunity for the farmers, craftsmen and agricultural implement makers from across the country to show off their stocks, new ploughs, seeding equipment and all other paraphernalia. This was the start the mechanisation of agriculture and Northampton was firmly on the map in 1847!
AM Feb 2025