Phil Gillam: Memories of Shropshire County Show for this rover

It was battered and bashed, but it just kept going.

It wasn’t a real Land Rover of course. What would a pen-pushing townie like me be doing with a real Land Rover?

No. My natural habitat is characterised by mud-free streets, smooth asphalt, roundabouts and traffic lights. No need to go off-roading.

No. This was a Corgi model Land Rover, two inches wide and four inches long, and I bought it from a stall at the West Mid Show in Shrewsbury when I was 10 years of age.

For a decade this toy Land Rover was my only real connection to the West Mid Show, and throughout my childhood, I probably attended the annual event no more than three times.

Fact is: Even now you could write down on the back of a matchbox everything I know about agriculture and the world of farming.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere of the show made quite an impression on me, and I’ve always considered it to be one of the flagship events in Shrewsbury’s calendar.

So I was delighted to read that the good old event – nowadays called the Shropshire County Show – was again a big success this year.

The 142nd show was staged at the Greenhous West Mid Showground last month, and Ian Bebbington, director of the Shropshire and West Midlands Agricultural Society charity (which organises the event), said: "It all went off extremely well.”

He said thousands of visitors attended. “We had some great attractions, including 1,000 animals on show – and traders say they had an excellent day as well.”

I wonder how many toy Land Rovers were sold.

Alongside the traditional agricultural displays was a walking, roaring dinosaur, a variety of free activities in the kids zone, hundreds of trade stands and the first round of the British Tractor Pulling Championships.

So you see … even if you’re a pen-pushing townie like me, someone who knows nothing about farming, the show clearly has plenty to offer.

Moving on to another big Shrewsbury event – this one coming up fast on the horizon:

SHREWSBURY FOOD FESTIVAL:

So while the grand old lady that is that county show has just clocked up her 142nd airing, the food festival is a mere infant, just about to turn five.

On June 24-25, organisers will be welcoming 25,000 people to Shrewsbury's Quarry Park for what’s being billed as the region's biggest and best food festival.

"And that's not just our opinion,” say the organisers. "It’s the view of just about every pollster and critic in the land. Earlier this year, The Sunday Mirror named Shrewsbury Food Festival the second best in the UK. ‘Oh,' we thought. 'We'll have to go one better next year’. Meanwhile, BBC Countryfile Magazine also described us as being in the UK's top 12 while What's On Magazine told us we'd got the best event in the region.”

There’s just so much going on.

The Kids Zone alone will feature soft archery, hook-a-duck, a rock star project, have-a-go music school, bottle top art, go-karting, survival skills, an animal area, silent disco, and kids cookery,

Elsewhere, there’s a host of chef demonstrations, plus drama, dance, and of course lots of live music (from fast and furious fiddle-playing folk group Fiddlesticks, the Coleham Primary School Choir, the Shropshire Training Brass Band, and Shawbury Military Wives Choir, The Rainbreakers, Shrewsbury Gospel Choir, the ukulele group from St Mary’s, Shawbury, and The Vertigo Band).

And all this is to enjoy as you sample the likes of hand-pressed apple juice, hand-baked giant cookies, scones, flapjacks, cakes, gorgeous ice cream, Indian food snacks, wines, grilled halloumi, award-winning pies, oh – the list goes on!

Have to say: my wife and I popped along there last year and had a fantastic time, returning home with a large willow dragonfly as a decoration for the garden. It’s very nice, the dragonfly, but I still prefer a toy Land Rover myself.