By Mark Green

Last updated 05:33, Friday, 25 July 2008

Busy lady, Margaret Hodgson. Usually she’s just got the pedigree Holstein dairy farm to help run and granddaughter Anna to look after on a Friday.Each year the show committee try to come up with new ways of making the event more appealing to townsfolk.

Home ground: Margaret Hodgson at the family farm at Wormanby, Burgh by Sands. As vice- chairman of the Cumberland Show she will be putting in a long day tomorrow to make sure everything goes according to plan

But this summer, she is also vice chairman of the Cumberland Show, oh, and she’s in the process of moving house.

She is the Show’s first woman vice-chairman and she will be the first woman chairman next year.

“I like a challenge!” she laughs, in the dining room of what will soon not be her farmhouse.

Trophies, certificates and photographs of prizewinning black and whites jostle for wall and shelf space with family snaps as testimony to son David’s breeding skills.

She and husband Harry are moving out in the next fortnight, so David and his wife can move into the four-bed Grade II Listed 17th-century home in Burgh by Sands.

Margaret will live across the yard in a smart new three-bedroomed house.

“The young ones wanted the old house and I thought ‘get in there Margaret, don’t miss a trick’.

“It is a new challenge for us and it won’t take so much looking after.”

While mart prices may be rising for dairy, beef and sheep farmers, she is quick to dismiss any thoughts that farmers are enjoying a golden time.

She said: “We are getting better prices, but the cost of feed has also doubled.

“People think we have got a good life, but the National Farmers Union stall at the Harrogate Show had a loaf of bread to show how much a farmer earned.

“Our part was a crust and a slice – all the rest goes to the middle-man.

“But it is just a way of life – you have to be born and bred with it, which I was.”

Margaret was born in Silloth where her father was a tenant farmer before moving to an estate farm at Great Corby.

She married Harry in 1971 and moved to Wormanby at Burgh the following year.

They farmed as tenants until three years ago when they jumped at the chance of buying it. “We never had the chance to buy until then and didn’t have any second thoughts.

“We had a little farm up the road in Kirkandrews on Eden which we bought as an investment in 1994 and sold that to finance buying this one.”

As for tomorrow’s show, there are two things she would like to see: dry weather and big crowds. One follows the other.

Last year’s poor attendance of 14,000 was 6,000 down on the previous year, mainly because there was rain early in the morning – even though the site remained dry and mud free.

Margaret said: “We need a dry day to get the public there. Once they are there, they will love it.

“People say ‘I haven’t been to the show for years’ and I think why not? it is on your doorstep.

“It is the shop window of farming and we want to encourage townsfolk to see what we do in the country.

“I asked the painter who is working on our house if he went to the show and he said it was too expensive, but he went to see Carlisle United play and that costs more for a ticket and a match only lasts 90 minutes!”

“We want to try and educate people about country life – we want to attract townspeople and their families.”

She is happy enough that there are more than 100 entries in each of the beef and dairy competitions, but fears some exhibitors might think the show is too grand for them because it is ‘the county show’.

Margaret admits there is pressure to cater for all tastes.

“Every year we feel we have got to find something different; this year we have the Shetland Pony Grand National which should be fun and the model farm has been expanded.”

There will be more than 200 businesses represented at the show this year.

A new Country Living trading area has been established, which will feature a selection of specialist products including clothing, jewellery, fine wines, upholstery and stationery.

As well as traditional country crafts such as dry stone walling beekeeping and candle rolling, there will be a fashion show and a barbecue demonstration.

Margaret has been part of the show for 20 years since joining the ‘industrial committee’, which actually covers cakes and baking and children’s competitions, rather than internal combustion engines and the best milking machinery.

She is self-deprecating about why she was chosen as the first woman to be appointed vice-chairman, claiming some candidates thought they were too old and others too young.

“I felt it was an honour to be asked and it is not as hard as it used to be,” she smiles

She was made vice-chairman just before last year’s event and had little time to settle into the job before gates opened.

This time round she has been more hands on and has managed to introduce a wee bit of extra canniness to the show in expanding the model farm and moving it to make a family area at the show.

She was one of the first two women to join a show committee and there are still only four in the organisation.

When she takes on her two years as chairman next year, it could spark more women to take up roles with the Show.

“They don’t have to be farmers’ wives – the current chairman of the ladies committee is a teacher,” she added.

Despite the fact that she will be breaking the male domination of the show hierarchy, Margaret says she has not thought of any changes she might make for next year.

But attracting more youngsters through the gates is high on her agenda.

To mark the Year of Food and Farming this year, show organisers have given free passes to 1,000 primary school children who have visited farms as part of the project.

And 15 of the schools which took part in the visits have entered a competition to create a display based on the Year of Food and Farming.

“We will have to think of something next year for the schools to take part in.”

As for this year’s event, she has already checked the site to make sure all is correct and will start work early tomorrow.

She expects to walk miles as she meets judges and exhibitors.

“David has entered some cattle for judging, so I will probably go in with him at 6.30am and it will be 6.30 or later in the evening when I get back here,” said Margaret.

“I will try and visit each section to see how they are doing and solve any problems.

“I’m looking forward to it in a way, but with trepidation!”