Record Crowds at this year’s Great Yorkshire Show
Over 135,000 people visited the Great Yorkshire Show this year and the Yorkshire Freemason’s Stand, in its prominent position near the Food Hall, attracted a great deal of interest from the many visitors at the Show.
Brethren from The Provinces of Yorkshire West Riding and The North and East Riding did a fantastic job over the 3 days, giving up their valuable time to “fly the flag” for Freemasonry. After months of planning everything came together to provide an eye catching display. The “Guess the TLC Teddy’s name “ Competition was a great “ice breaker”, which allowed the members to approach the public and start chatting to them, particularly about the TLC Initiative. It was amazing how many people now know about TLC as their children or grandchildren have received a Teddy after visiting an A & E Department. Out of over 350 entries the sole winner of the free Competition was Mrs Raw from Ripon who correctly guessed its name, which was………. “Oscar”. Mrs Raw was presented with Oscar at her home by W Bro Roger Newhouse (Chairman of this year’s Organising Committee) a few days after the Show.
On Tuesday Mrs Tracey Westgarth, Regional Manager of Parkinsons UK, together with a colleague, spent the day on the Stand as part or the “Team” and were presented with 2 cheques totalling £10,000 from the Grand Charity. This was part of the Grand Charity’s nationwide donation of £250,000 to Parkinsons UK. W Bro Bill Fisher APGM (North and East Riding) and W Bro Colin Dent APGM (West Riding) presented the cheques. W Bro Martin Stray APGM (West Riding) also spent a large part of the day helping the “Team”.
On Wednesday The Provincial Grand Master of Yorkshire West Riding, RW Bro John K Clayton donned his name badge and spent a large part of the day on the stand chatting to the many visitors. Also, Mr Bruce Fowler and Mrs Ruth Kata from the Nell Bank Centre in Ilkley and Mr Duncan Bedson of Dance United Bradford spent the day as part of the Team and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Both organisations were delighted to come along as they felt it was a way of saying “thank you” to the Provincial Grand Masters Fund (West Yorkshire)for the recent grants made to each group of £20,000.
On Thursday Mr Peter Farnell from The Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team came along to be part of the “Team”. They recently took delivery of a specially adapted Rescue Land Rover which cost £30,000 which again was made possible by a grant from the Provincial Grand Masters Fund (West Riding).
RW Bro John K Clayton again was on duty, accompanied by W Bro Stuart Cummins APGM (West Riding) and W Bro Colin Dent APGM (West Riding). At one point they were in sole charge of the stand!
All in all, a very successful three days, and the weather could not have been any better.
Finally, an interesting event happened on Wednesday was when HRH The Prince of Wales who was visiting the Show with the Duchess of Cornwall, had a brief chat with W Bro Newhouse who just happened to be passing one of the cattle sheds. HRH asked W Bro Newhouse if he was a “breeder”, to which he replied “No Sir, just visiting the Show”. HRH then spotted W Bro Newhouse’s Yorkshire Freemasons badge and said, “I see you’re a Freemason, are you getting many members?” to which W Bro Newhouse replied, “Yes, we are Sir, in fact we have a stand at the show”. HRH then said “Very good” and off he went. W Bro Newhouse said he will dine on that story for months, if not years, to come.
The Yorkshire Freemasons Stand is now an established feature at the Great Yorkshire Show and the dates for next year are already in every one’s diary.
Look forward to seeing you on the 10th, 11th or 12th July 2012.
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