The Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Breeders’ Association would like to extend an absolutely enormous thank you to every craft demonstator, exhibition invigilator and WLSBA stand steward that helped make the exhibition’s week at the Great Yorkshire Show such a huge success! Without you all and your incredible enthusiasm for promoting heritage woolcrafts and Wensleydale sheep, it simply wouldn’t have been possible
Demonstrators:
Sally McNeil
Angela Stewart
Sue Hopkinson
Lois Gardner
Beth Walsh
Jane Firth
Louise Curnin
Avril Paylor
Nel Eyre
Theresa Freeman-Grenville
Helen Herbert
Jo Olner
Helen Butt
Yvonne Le Mare
Phillipa Turnbull
Invigilators:
Angela Stewart
Lucy Thistlethwaite
Diane Shadforth
Sue Hopkinson
Lois Gardner
Linda Slattery
Sally McNeil
Mark Cunliffe-Lister
Theresa Freeman-Grenville
Hazel Oliver
Lynne Warriner
Karen Griffiths
David Griffiths
Gillian Rogers
Paul Rogers
WLSBA Stewards:
Graham Steventon
Nick Holden
Jodi Shadforth
Mary Smith
Ernie Sherwin
Roger Field
Clare Ackroyd
Sophie Oliver
Helen Wray
Susan Cunliffe-Lister
Nick Oliver
Diane Shadforth
Katherine Hatfield-Waites
Emma Waites
Emyr Roberts
Tracy Salisbury-Arndt
Thanks also to Graham Steventon for all of his work designing the structural layout of the exhibition space and liaising with GYS organisers, Charlie Dodd for whizzing the stand up from the other end of the country, Nick Holden for transporting the exhibition and installing artworks, Diane Shadforth for her ongoing help with install, Tracy Salisbury-Arndt and Emyr Roberts who have been amazing helping take the exhibition down and Jodi Shadforth for dedicating time to organising the exhibition, arranging volunteers, installing the artworks and providing sheep for the stand. Not to mention the GYS itself for allowing us to bring the exhibition to the show!
The visitors book is full of appreciation and admiration for what you have all achieved, as well as lots of wonderful comments about the special breed that the exhibition has been built upon. We hope you all get chance to enjoy a well deserved rest!
It has proved to be a fantastic opportunity to promote our wonderful Wensleydale sheep, with enquiries about keeping the sheep and a chance to educate the public on what makes them so unique. We managed to garner quite a bit of media interest, with some celebrity visitors such as BBC’s Helen Skelton, Rob & Dave from Canon Hall Farm and Caz Graham from Radio 4. You can even listen to a short radio interview about the breed and the exhibition on Radio 4’s Farming Today 11/07/25 via BBC Sounds, a write up in the Farmers Guardian a week prior to the show, a publication in the D&S Times during show week and various other places such as the GYS YouTube channel, the upcoming Canon Hall Farm podcast and BBC Radio York. We hope that the exhibition will continue to raise the profile of the breed and garner interest from the next generation of shepherds.
