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Messingham Horse and Foal Show Society
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Holme Meadow,
Holme Lane, Messingham
DN17-3SG
MAP
(kindly made available by Messingham Parish Council)
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History of the Show
Messingham Feast & The Show
Messingham feast dates back
centuries and much research would be required
to throw light on
its true
origins. Undoubtedly, it was very much bound up with
the patronal festival of
the village’s Church of the Holy Trinity, and in 1825 the
curate, the Rev. John
Mackinnon, gave a picturesque account of the Feast in his
‘Account of Messingham’…..
“But the great jubilee was during the
wake or feast, which commenced on Trinity Sunday and
was kept up … during the
remainder of the week.
Several days before this annual carnival took place,
beds which had not been slept
in of late, perhaps not since the preceding feast,
might be seen before every
cottage door, brought out to air; and the pantry of
every house was now well
stored with provisions.
When the long wished for day
arrived, cheerfulness was seen in every countenance, and every girl who had not,
hoped now to gain a beau. The roads,
as I have before stated, being in bad repair, many of the cousins came to the
feast on horseback. It was not unusual on this occasion to see the “good man”
riding with his mistress behind him on a pillion; she, a child on her lap, and
he another before him on a cushion. Dobin was more accustomed to trail the
plough, or the cart, than to carry Christians on his back … and from the
stability of his frame evidently showed no pretensions to a racing ancestry, and
from the roughness of his coat still less of high keeping. As riding in those
days was more a matter of convenience than pleasure, little regard was paid to
the symmetry or condition of the horse. With the aid of whip and spur … he
brought his burden in the true plebeian shog which had given himself and his
riders no small degree of appetite.
On the arrival of the guests and the first
congratulations of visitors and visited being over, the children were given
pence to buy rock-majock, ginger-bread and nuts at the stalls which stood about
the Crosstree. The round and bright oak table was brought into the middle of
the clean-washed floor, the home-spun cloth was spread, the good things set out
in order, and all assembled to partake, enjoying the plain yet wholesome fare,
as much as their friends were delighted to entertain them at their board.
Dinner being finished and a pipe or two smoked, the company turned out to see
the sports of the feast, such as horses running for saddles, asses for bridles,
boys for hats, and girls for smocks, and jumping in sacks, etc. When these were
concluded, and prizes awarded to the fortunate winners, the company returned
to
the houses of their friends, where they were regaled with posset and white
plum
bread, and concluded the evening with a dance.”
The popular belief is that the first Show was held in 1896, and this
year marks the 108th
(no Show
was held between 1924 and 1919 and between 1940 and 1945).
Until recently our
records went back only to 1930, and our knowledge of the early days was vague to
say the least. However, in answer to an appeal for information for the 75th
show catalogue, Mr Eric Laughton produced a minute book, which completed our
records back to 1895. He rescued it from a
bonfire at the Hall in
the early
1950’s and his timely intervention provided us with some
fascinating reading.
A
minute dated 1st April 1896 reveals that ‘rolls of tickets be used as
last
year at
the gate and that colours be white for the first day and yellow for
the second’, so
the
inference is that a Show was held before 1896 and a two-day
one at that. Certainly Mackinnon
refers to sports and events involving horses,
so it is possible that the Show evolved over
many years and that it was not
until 28th October
1895, at a meeting in the Horn Inn,
that the event
was put on an official footing
with the formation of the
‘Messingham Horse &
Foal Show Committee’.
The original list of members
contained several old family names of Messingham –
Chairman, Jonathan Cheeseman;
T & F Mason; J Nelson; R Lockwood; W Gowsell;
Wm Elsome;
and these were soon
joined by C Walker; R B Lea; T Lee; A Lovitt
and J Lovitt who served as Honorary
Veterinary Surgeon.
The 1896 Show was planned for Mr Mason’s field at Hall Farm and the
following programme of events was drawn up an advertised on printed
bills… There was doubt whether a Show would be held in 1908, but it
continued, and in 1910 moved
to the Park at the bottom of Church Street, where it remained for the next
sixty-four years.
The beautiful setting, together with the high standards achieved by
the long serving officers of that time, contributed to the Show
acquiring national recognition as the ‘Queen of Lincolnshire Shows’
attracting competitors from all parts of the Midlands and the North
of England. The Fair, or ‘Feast’ as it was called, was an important
part of the celebrations and after the Show as dusk fell the village
was alive with people making their way up Church Street and along
High Street to the ‘Feast Field’ at the rear of the Horn Inn.
It is during the last thirty years or so that the greatest changes
have taken place.
In 1966, the introduction of the Spring Bank Holiday as a
replacement for the traditional Whitsun left the committee with no
alternative, if clashes with other Shows were to be avoided, but to
‘fix’ the Show date and only occasionally did it
fall on Trinity Monday. The loss of the ‘Feast Field’ was the
next setback and the fairground rides were accommodated in the Park
with the Show. This solution was short-lived, because two
years after Mr Eminson’s death in 1971, the Park
was split in two; part sold as building land and the remainder put
to the plough. Since then the show has moved several times.
For the next eleven years
Mr Bird accommodated the show at Northfield Farm. Following
his death, for one year only in 1986, Jim Skelton loaned his field,
which was close to where the Meadows now stands. Ray Price
then stepped in and allowed the show to use the facilities at Grange
Park where it remained until 1996. The Parish Council then,
with grant aid from Glanford Borough Council, drained and grassed
the old, allotments on Holme to provide a 20 acre activities field
which has been the site
for the Show to the present day. 1990 saw the Show held for the first time on a
Sunday.
It was not an easy decision but the Committee felt that now the local
schoolchildren are no longer given a day’s holiday it would
again become
the
family day that it used to be.
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