Milwich Parish Website

Back in the mid 1980’s, John Babb had the vision to start a Produce Guild in Milwich which would meet monthly to discuss gardening and other related topics and arrange an annual Produce Show. In September 1987 the first show took place at Milwich Village Hall. The Show was heavily oversubscribed and the tables were loaded with all types of vegetables, cakes, flowers, jams and wines. Fortunately it was a dry sunny day because more tables had to be set up outside to stage all the exhibits. For the next couple of years the show was held at the village hall but a marquee was used in the car park to extend the space available. When the number of exhibits exceeded this space, the Show moved to a much larger marquee at Beechcroft, it’s current home. Even then the Show continued to grow and more tables and larger marquees had to be hired.

Moving forward to 2012, the Milwich Produce Guild held the 25th Show and celebrated their Silver Jubilee on Saturday 1st September. A huge amount of work and expense is involved and the Show would not exist but for the many generous sponsors and the volunteers who give up many hours of their time. Several of the volunteers have been helping since that first show in 1987. As well as the Produce Show, a Classic Car show now runs alongside in the grounds of The Manor, courtesy of Mark and Sue Burton.

Unfortunately, the founder of the Guild, John Babb, died in February this year. In the early days he was the winner of many of the trophies and was always proud of his “large onions”. As more exhibitors came along, many from outside of Milwich, his dominance of the trophies was challenged. John desperately wanted to see the show reach this milestone and one of his last acts before his death was to get the Silver Jubilee Show Schedule published.

Despite a poor growing season, the Show was once again well supported with very high quality exhibits. The Show now includes classes for Art and Photography and these classes were very well subscribed this year. The sun shone and, once open to the public at 3pm, the large marquee was filled with people and the tea stall was constantly busy. The number of trophies continues to grow, they were presented this year by the Dowager Lady Harrowby who expressed her pleasure at being asked and thought the Show seemed to get larger and better every year. A new trophy in memory of John Babb was presented by his family for the largest onions in the show, what else!

The Guild expressed their thanks to Lady Harrowby, the sponsors, the exhibitors, the large number of helpers and stewards, the Show electrician who has done the same job for all 25 Shows and to everyone who came along to view the exhibits.

A selection of pictures from the Show can be seen below.