The Emsworth Show: a Bank Holiday on the coast

The Emsworth Show has just come off the back of its annual outing, and it is worth knowing how the day went, because it is the sort of thing that quietly fills a Bank Holiday Monday near Portsmouth. Billed as "the Best Little Show in the South", it ran yesterday at the showground at the One Church on Thorney Road, put on as always by the Emsworth Horticultural Society.

The gates opened at 10:30 and stayed open until 5:00, with entry at £5 a head and children aged 12 and under free, so it was an easy one to bring the whole family along for. The site itself is the New Life Christian Church on Main Road, with the entrance off Thorney Road, and it came with free accessible parking and two arenas to keep things moving. Getting there was made simpler by three shuttle buses running roughly every 15 minutes between 9:30 and 17:30, looping from the venue to the former Horndean Road site and the town centre.

What you get for your money is a proper old-fashioned mix: dog shows, plant stalls, home produce, arts and crafts, and local entertainment. The main arena carried the bulk of the action, opening with the Chair of ERA top open show, then moving through Melana Dance, Touch & Go Agility, The Mighty Smith, and line dancing, before crowning Best in Show at 14:45. Over in the Mary Puppins Arena, the morning was Punch & Judy and a picnic, followed by the dog show at 13:15 and a bit of Punch & Judy magic to close. Meanwhile, the band tent kept the music going all day, with Lennon Taylor, Rose and Thistle, and Slow Burn Reggae trading slots from 10:00 right through to 16:00.

The dog gala, held in the Mary Puppins Arena and sponsored by Mary Puppins, is a real draw, and this year came with a sensible welfare note. With warm weather forecast, owners were asked to bring water, find shade and keep an eye out for heat stress, with a reminder that some dogs simply cope better at home than in a warm arena. At the other end of the show sat the EHS Horticultural Marquee, the heart of the whole thing, with 200 classes for members and non-members across eleven sections: vegetables, flowers, fruit, herbs, rose hips, seed heads, grasses, cacti, alpine plants, indoor plants, home bakes and preserves, arts and crafts, photography, and flower arranging, plus some fun classes for all ages. Entry forms and the marquee schedule had been out since May, available from the EHS Distribution Hut and a handful of local shops around Emsworth.

If you missed it, the Emsworth Horticultural Society is not packing up for the year. There is a new members' get-together at the Distribution Hut on Washington Road on Sunday 20 September, a talk on salvias by Marina Christopher on Thursday 24 September, and a talk on creating movement whilst frozen still by Ben Pope on Thursday 22 October. A festive trip to Leeds Castle is also on the cards for early December. The society's open garden at 18 Fraser Gardens, which had been set for 3 September, has been cancelled, so the next thing to put in the diary is that members' get-together.