Royal Norfolk

Long day today. Didn’t even sleep in as we have been because our hosts were having a dinner party tonight, and we needed to help get things moving. Not that I contributed much, but Celia made two quiches in record time, and generally organized other things in advance of the meal tonight.

But we also had to be out by 8.45 because our niece and her husband were taking us to the Royal Norfolk Show. This event has been going in some form since the mid 1800s, and has occupied it present space of some 375 acres. There are a number of permanent buildings, but today the place was loaded with tents and marquees and open-air rings (the largest would be two or three acres on its own, I suppose).

I had in mind that it would be like the A&P show that we have in Dunedin, which is a bit of a dud these days, as far as most people are concerned. Not so this show. Over 105,000 people attended last year, and judging by the number of people there today – wall-to-wall they were – that figure would have been surpassed. The weather was great, for a start, and though it threatened to rain at one point, it never did. Apparently last year the people selling raincoats made a killing!

Of course there were farm animals galore, including great hulking bulls and their cows and calves; a bunch of geese being herded by a sheepdog around several groups of schoolchildren and up and over a bridge; huge pigs; owls, ferrets, and you name it.

Everybody and his uncle was there selling stuff, and in the food building they were giving away samples of food in a way I’ve never seen at any of the shows in Dunedin. You could have had a taste of practically everything that was on display – we tried out quite a bit ourselves.

Our relatives paid for us to have an excellent meal presented by the Catering School, and we sat at a table which included one of the vice-presidents of the Royal Norfolk, his wife and son.

There are several entrances to the grounds, each of them leading to a car park connected to one of several main roads in the area, so that you can come in from Dereham, or Wymondham, or Norwich itself. The car parks were expertly handled by a large team of mostly young people. You wouldn’t want to forget where you parked your car, however. The car park we were in would have held a couple of thousand cars, I’d think.

There are a few photos of the facilities here.