The 2023 edition of the Bathurst Agricultural Show is less than three months away (Thursday 30 March to Sunday 2 April). Talk of the Town has been your Bathurst Show companion and support for nearly two decades and continues to walk the road with the district’s favourite event.
The first Bathurst Agricultural Show was held on March 6, 1850. There were plenty of
stops and starts in the show’s early days and so the organisers marked 100 years of shows in 2008, rather than the formal centenary.
Multi-gifted Ben Bezuidenhout was commissioned to compile a history of the Show. With the blessing of the new organisers and the author, we’ll be giving you a peek at the Show’s
fascinating history and we start with an excerpts about its founding from Simply the Best:
100 years of Bathurst Agricultural Shows:
In 1848 on 12 April, a meeting was held at Bathurst and the Lower Albany Agricultural Society was formed. Thus began the show which annually arouse the inhabitants of Bathurst and the Lower Albany area from their peaceful lethargy to frenzied activity. The Committee appointed to set the Agricultural Society in motion reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of distinguished Settlers, with the following elected: William Cock Jnr, Chairman, Thomas Berrington, Samuel Bradshaw, Stephen Dell, George Dyason,William Geray, Thomas Hartley, B Keeton, W McLuckie, E Thompson, Charles Timm and L Strachan, Secretary and
Treasurer.
The object: ’To hold Agricultural Shows at Bathurst’.
All these men, or their fathers, had, from the start of the little settlement of Bathurst,
taken and active part in public life. In fact it is most interesting to observe a direct link from the 1820 Settlers, continuing right through to the present, for their descendants still feature in farming life and in the Bathurst Agricultural Show.
The first Bathurst Agricultural Show was held on 6 March 1850. The Grahamstown
Journal reported, “We had a very good show of stock, together with many varieties of wheat and, considering this was the first show, the competition for prizes was spirited.’”
The prize-winners were happy and their prizes were as follows: Willliam Gray won three pounds and ten shillings for 15 Bushels of Lower Albany Wheat; E Filmer got one pound
for 10 pounds of Maize. There were prizes for Best Bull, Best Cow, Best Fat Ox, Best Boar,
Best Filch of Bacon, Best Sow and Best Cheese. A bonus prize of one pound and ten shillings was awarded to J Weston for introducing a variety of wheat suitable to Lower Albany.
The proceedings of the day went off to the satisfaction of all parties, and the first formal
dinner was held by the Show at the Bathurst Inn and attended by 34 farmers. The Show had taken its first step forward. By today’s standards it was a very small show, but it was the beginning of the vast organisation that springs to life in March/April every year in Bathurst.
● TELL US YOUR BATHURST SHOW STORIES
What’s your earliest memory of the Bathurst Show? Share your memories and photos of
the Bathurst Show with Ndlambe Nostalgia. We have two signed copies of Ben Bezuidenhout’s book, Simply the Best to offer in exchange for the first two that we publish.
Send your stories and photos to: suelaburngordon@gmail.com or editorial@talkofthetown.co.za
War, wool, pineapples and the press – The Road to the Bathurst Show – Part 2