CARS queued, people hustled and bustled, horses neighed, cattle mooed and Cricklade’s annual show – billed as the "only country show on your doorstep" was a sell out!

On one of the warmest August Bank Holidays for many a year people swarmed to Cricklade in their thousands. As might be expected on such a humid day, ice cream and beer were like gold dust and unfortunately both sold out before the afternoon was half over.

Treasurer of the show Edgar Dash said "We ordered more ice cream than in previous years but could not cope with demand.

Mr Dash added that Thamesdown had been running extra bus services from Swindon and Wootton Bassett especially for the show. Something they had not done in the past.

Show chairman Rod Kellaway had only one word to describe this year’s show – fantastic! He said "It has got to be a record year". Mr Kellaway said that there were between 16,000 and 17,000 people at the show compared with last year’s impressive 12,000.

Apart from the usual cattle, horses, sheep, goat, dog and flower shows all of which attracted a great deal of interest, there were side shows, trade stands of all variety and of course the main attraction ring.

But disaster almost struck in the sheep dog trials when the novice dogs were in action. One dog ran hell for leather towards the sheep and sent them scurrying onto the main road but thankfully the problem was quickly solved!