6:00pm Wednesday 10th March 2010
By Nazia Parveen
HUNDREDS of years worth of history has been sold in a bid to save the society behind The Royal Lancashire Show.
Organisers behind the show have sold off dozens of trophies in a bid to stave off bankruptcy.
Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society chiefs say that 64 trophies, some of which were hundreds of years old, had to be sold in order to stop the society from calling in the administrators.
The show, which was the oldest agricultural show in the country, has been cancelled on a number of occasions over the past few years due to bad weather and health and safety concerns.
Company secretary David Marriott expressed his sadness at selling the trophies but said the society did not have any other options.
He said: “In order to stop us from going into liquidation we looked at the situation and it was fairly clear that we needed to raise capital and reduce costs or the society would have to fold.
“We have acted responsibly and legally and had we not done this the society would no longer exist and the show would definitely not have happened again.”
The cash raised from the sale of the trophies will be used to make redundancy payments to two former members of staff and cover administration costs resulting from the closure of the society’s offices in Windmill Cottages, Preston Old Road, Mellor Brook.
Another 110 trophies owned by the society have been put into storage to be used at smaller equestrian events.
Mr Marriott said: “Some of these trophies were genuine antiques and we were very sad to see them go. It is a great shame.”
Talking about the future of the show Mr Marriott stated that he was not feeling optimistic.
He said: “It is very difficult to raise the large sum of money which we need for the show to go on.
"However, it is not impossible and we will do the best we can to try and resurrect it.”
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