Welshpool Show

The band plays and the livestock parade, the hefty bulls and enormous work horses weighty on the ground. Above, acrobats balance in the air.

From bulls to balancing acts, all the components of a good show are here. A band plays, weighty cattle (e.g. Herefords, Ayrshires, Welsh Blacks, Friesians) and heavy Shire horses parade, an escapee heifer runs trailing its rope, the Tanatside Hounds enter the ring, and a trio of acrobats defy belief! A good – and certainly dry - day was no doubt had by all although the Hereford bull that found a cabbage in its feed bowl looks as if he may have been bemused or even not amused.

Ion Trant of Dovea Farm in Tipperary, Ireland, studied agriculture in Canada and then took up a position at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station in Aberystwyth where he met his future wife, Janet Owen of Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool, both of them working on developing improved grasses for upland farms with George Stapledon. The Trants farmed at Maesmawr Hall, the adjoining farm Cefn Du, and Esgairdraenllwyn at Llaithddu, Llandrindod. Ion created/filmed the "Country Close-Up" series for children (BBC - 1956-62), subsequently obtaining work as a freelance cameraman and, as John Kerry, wrote a weekly column for the Montgomeryshire Express about agricultural life, in which capacity he attended many a show.