Post date: Mar 08, 2018 12:25:38 PM

Extract from Kent & Sussex Courier - Friday 22 June 1923

KENT COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

FIRST SHOW AT GRAVESEND.

The three days' Show of the Kent County Agricultural Society opened at Gravesend on Tuesday and continued until yesterday. This Society was formed last year the amalgamation of the old East Kent and Mid-Kent Shows, and the larger county organisation the result. Gravesend was chosen as the venue first Show. It was not the most accessible town in the county, and this fact, combined with the doubtful weather and the five shilling charge for admission, probably accounted for meagre attendance the opening day. The entries, which came from a wide area, numbered about 1,000, and exceeded in number those of the Bath and West Show. In several classes, however, there were absentees on the day. A poultry section attracted over 500 entries. The Earl of Darnley, who is President of the Society, was noticed on the ground on Tuesday; also the Earl and Countess of Leitrim, Lady Loder, Lady Hope, the Hon. A. Bathurst and Colonel F. S. W. Cornwallis, while the visitors on Wednesday included the Earl of Guildford, Chairman, and the Marquis Camden, Lord Lieutenant of the County.

HORSES. The various sections were well supported, and the whole the quality of the exhibits was a high standard. There were 133 horses shown, and among Shires Mr. John Q. Rowett of Ely Place, Frant was a successful exhibitor. In the class for stallions, foaled in 1921 or 1922, his Frant Ambition, a powerful, upstanding and muscular colt, secured first place, and in the yearling class his Cropper Floss, a well grown bay, by Babingley Nulli Secundus, gained premier honours. Another first prize went to Mr. Rowett in the class for brood mares, in which he won with Frida of Sundridge, by Champion, a weighty, powerful mare with a very good foal at foot. The winning two-year-old was Mr. Owen English's Wateringbury April Queen, a big, good looking filly, second prize going Miss E. D. Coats, of Brenchley, with Brattles Festive, bred by exhibitor. A special prize of £5 offered Mr. Rowett for the best foal sired by an Ely Place sire stud stallion went to Sussex May Queen, shown by Mr. W. Rogers, of Horton Kirby. Suffolks were not large class, but Miss Evelyn Rich, Westerham Hill, was a successful exhibitor, gaining third prize with Ludbourne Bellringer in the class for stallion, any age: second in the yearling class with Silverstead Kate; third in the two-year-olds with Silverstead Ploughboy: and reserve for mare with Bladen Redwing, with foal.

Mr. Owen English carried off the three prizes the class for agricultural horses, first with Wateringbury Flash Cat, a very useful animal; second with Wateringbury April Queen; and third with Wateringbury May Queen; while Mr. John Percival, Wrotham, was commended with his Boxer, a Shire gelding three-year old. In the classes for mare gelding Mr. A. Burton, Bedsell Manor Farm, Five Oak Green, was placed third with four year-old black gelding.

In the Hunter Section Mr. James Russell of Mapleton, Edenbridge. was placed first for hunter 14 stone and over, to be ridden.

The Hackney Horse Society's Silver Medal was awarded Mr. J. Q. Rowett for Frida of Sunridge. Shetlands were an interesting though small section. The Ladies Hope, of South Park, Bodiam gaining third prize with Formula, a three year old piebald mare, and third in the stallion class with Cafe Clock, cream dun stallion of five years.

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