Bygone Memories of Malton – Showground
Over the years Malton Showground has been used for many an event. Hosting the Circus, Greyhound Derbies, Michaelmas Sheep sales and was also the home for many years of Malton Show.
In 2015, the site of the old Showground gained approval (in principal) for the development of 314 houses. Several subsequent planning applications were submitted. As you see before you today, Linden Homes have constructed many dwellings and continue to do so towards the rear of the site.
Linden Homes development in 2015, view from Pasture Lane
Michaelmas Sheep fair 1978
Malton Show History
In 1998, owing to lack of space at the Showfield Lane site, Malton show moved to Scampston Park approximately 7 miles to the East. In order to retain the long established link with the townspeople, a half-hourly free bus service is run from Malton to the new location at Scampston.
The Malton Agricultural Society was formed in 1833 and the first recorded summer show or exhibition was held in the early 1870s.
The first show of beef, the forerunner of the present day fat stock shows, was held on December 22, 1885. In the same year, the Great Yorkshire show had been held at Malton in the Orchard Fields, with the Malton Floral Society holding its own exhibition in a marquee on the same site as part of the show.
Present-day livestock exhibitors will be interested to learn the first prize for shorthorn cattle was £25 and for a Leicester ram £20. At that time, according to local records, a farm labourer was earning 15 shillings a week and good land in the district could be bought for £50 per acre.
In 1872, the Appleton-le-Street and Malton Agricultural Societies amalgamated, with the first joint show being held in 1873 in two fields belonging to Mr Cooper, on July 29. Special trains were run for the occasion, which halted at the Appleton Junction. The following year, the show was held in the Orchard Fields in Malton when about 8,000 people attended and from that date the show was always recorded in the local papers as Malton Show.
The Rev C Peach, who lived at Appleton-le-Street, was the very first president, in 1875, and when he died in 1886 he was described as the Father of Malton Show.
In the early days, the show council was made up of landowners, MPs and very prominent farmers, many of whom had large estates in the wider area around Malton. A sub-committee of three members was responsible for the organisation and running of the show. Shows like Malton, Ryedale and Driffield seem to have been a very important part of the social calendar of the county society of those early days.
Malton show was cancelled for the duration of the two world wars. And livestock classes had to be cancelled on at least two occasions because of foot and mouth disease, with no extra precautions deemed necessary to stop the spread of the disease. The severe floods which isolated the two towns on the morning of the show in July 1930 halved the gate money and caused a loss on that year. The depression was affecting farming very badly by then and the show had financial problems until the show was revived in 1948 after the end of the war when the fortunes of farming improved.
By 1948, the show committee was dominated by working farmers and had changed its day to a Thursday.
Malton Show in full swing c1979.
Malton Showground had a large Grandstand until it was burnt down in the mid-eighties,
View of The Grandstand on Malton Showground c.1979
Spectators at Malton Show in the Grandstand many years ago!
Robert's Brothers Circus comes to town c. 1970s
Circus Elephants arrive in Malton by train
Circus elephant in Old Malton - Opposite St Mary's Priory Church
Greyhound racing c1979