Manifold Valley Show
Founded in 1980 to unite parishes bordering the River Manifold, this strictly local-entry show is beloved for its Slow Tractor Race and genuine community spirit set against the spectacular scenery of the Staffordshire moorland valley.
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"Longnor's cobbled market square hosts one of the last well dressings of the season in the Staffordshire Moorlands, a rare continuation of the Derbyshire tradition just over the county border."
Longnor Well Dressing
"Six dancers carry ancient reindeer antlers, some carbon dated to the eleventh century, twelve miles around a Staffordshire village on Wakes Monday, joined by a hobby horse, a Fool and Maid Marian."
Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
Villagly Award · Oldest Dance in the UK ✦ Weird and Wonderful"The Staffordshire village of Pattingham mounts scarecrows through its streets and gardens for three late September days, running alongside fairground rides and food stalls at the village club in a festival that has quietly become one of the best attended scarecrow events in the Midlands."
Pattingham Scarecrow Festival
"The Staffordshire County Showground organises district ploughing and hedgelaying matches each autumn, and the Eccleshall round draws competitors from across the county to farmland around one of Staffordshire's quieter market towns for a full day of working countryside skills."
Eccleshall District Ploughing and Hedgelaying Match
"One of Staffordshire's oldest continuous well-dressing traditions, begun in 1843 as an act of thanksgiving after Endon's spring uniquely survived a devastating regional drought, the festival pairs intricately flower-petalled well panels with a May Queen crowning, maypole dancing, and the competitive sheaf-tossing contest."
Endon Well Dressing
"A whole weekend of English and American folk dancing from Playford to the present, with national callers and bands across three halls, marking its 50th year."
Lichfield Folk Festival
"An annual one-day agricultural show in the southern Peak District gateway town of Ashbourne, celebrating local livestock, rural skills and Derbyshire farming heritage."
Ashbourne Show
"Shropshire's largest steam event, with over 1200 exhibits at Onslow Park including shire horses ploughing the working field, steam-powered cultivating, vintage tractor pulling and the famous Grand Parade set to nostalgia poetry."
Shrewsbury Steam Rally
"One of the Peak District's biggest Bank Holiday events with sheepdog trials running through to Tuesday, show jumping, heavy horses, gundogs and a food village drawing thousands to the Hope Valley in the hills."
Hope Show and Sheepdog Trials
"A much-loved annual show held on August Bank Holiday Monday in the heart of the Peak District's Hope Valley, bringing together livestock, terrier racing, fell running and rural crafts beneath the Dark Peak moorland."
Hope Valley Show
"Three days of grand ring spectacle in the 1000-acre parkland of Chatsworth House, with hot air balloon ascents, lurcher racing, celebrity chefs, country sports and a vintage fun fair against one of England's great ducal estates."
Chatsworth Country Fair
"The 75th championship brings 250 of Britain's finest ploughmen and women to a Warwickshire farm, with steam ploughing engines, heavy horses and 300 plots across 15 classes."
British National Ploughing Championships