A Brief History
The Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society can trace its roots back to 1767 and ran probably the oldest
Agricultural Show in the country through its events company Countywide Events Ltd.
During the early years the show moved from town to town within the old Lancashire Area.
From 1954
Stanley Park, Blackpool became home for many years. It was decided to change a large area of Stanley Park into the Zoo, so sadly we
had to move again. By then, however, we had sufficient funds to purchase land at Ribby Hall, Wrea Green.
Sadly, financial circumstances meant that we were forced to cease all activities in 1979 for some years.
After starting again, we toured Lancashire once more, including Witton Park, Blackburn, until an agreement was made with Chorley Council, to use Astley park, where we spent many happy years. A mutual
decision was made to move from that site to land at Salesbury Hall Farm, near Ribchester, in 2003, this took us till 2006, where the hot weather gave us a useful profit, and we felt, once again, that we had a future. But the bad weather forced the cancellation in 2007. Moving to a new site at Barton for 2008, hopes were dashed once more with the horrendous weather forcing cancellation again !! - these two cost the society over £550, 000 - an enormous amount to withstand, and meant that this year we had to abandon plans for a large show.
Instead we have had a number of events which we had hoped would produce enough funds to finance future shows, however with the
recession playing a part, it is obvious we need serious monetary
assistance to produce another show. Each time we change show grounds it costs more money because of the need to provide roads, electricity, water etc. We use an area of over 150 acres, (needing more car parking space than showground area). So we need both a showground, and funds to produce future events, and we look to everyone to help secure the future of, possibly, the oldest Agricultural Show, in the country.