Meet Yorkshire's rural show guru who organises game fairs, steam traction rallies and war weekends

Why should he be attributed a title such as Mr Showman? Well, that’s because everything at the Yorkshire Game & Country Fair that takes place once again at Scampston Park near Malton on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 next weekend is down to Richard pulling everything and everyone together, and it’s not just next weekend’s event either. He is a living, breathing one-man show dynamo.

Yorkshire Game & Country Fair now attracts an attendance of 10,000 over its two days and this year will feature the UK Tractor Show, the adrenaline and turbo-fuelled excitement of tractor pulling, British Scurry and Trials Driving, Mounted Games and every aspect of country and rural pursuits including, and brand new for this year, the UK Horseboarding Championships.

Richard is also the man behind eight more annual events held in Yorkshire and Cheshire and at this time of year he is often seen bashing in posts and signs all around the countryside from early morning until late at night advertising them all.

“I feel my Yorkshire Game & Country Fair is now very well established,” says Richard. “It has been running since 2005 and has been at Scampston Hall, thanks to Chris Legard, since 2016.

“I have a very good working relationship with Chris and he has been extremely supportive especially during the Covid period. I think we have been able to help each other as more people have become aware of what a superb house, grounds and venue Scampston Hall provides.

“I now have three events and a pop-up camp site at Scampston Hall, the others being Scampston Staycation in the late May bank holiday week, Yorkshire Modified Car Show in June and Yorkshire Traction Engine Rally in September.

But Ringmaster Richard very nearly lost everything during the lockdown periods and it was his brainwave Staycation pop-up camp site idea, that he pursued at Scampston and Whitby, that Richard says may just have saved his business. He was still putting on a show, albeit in a very different way.

“Covid was a horrendous time. When lockdown was announced in late March 2020 I had everything ready to go for my events. I had to dispose of tens of thousands of pounds worth of print. I missed a whole year. I had to get a Bounce Back loan that I’m still paying off now, and the following year I started back up with pop-up camp sites. At first, we weren’t sure whether any of the events were going to come back at all and the camp sites helped me fill that void a little. It was a very worrying time.

“The pop-up sites, that we called Staycation sites were massive. At Scampston we had 800 pitches and we were completely full, of which a lot were tents. It was quite astonishing when we were doing rubbish clearances, seeing the amount of empty boxes because of people having bought new tents, inflatable mattresses, camping equipment.

“This year I’m just running the one Staycation at Scampston Hall from 25-30 May. People are back going abroad now and I’m not sure how much longer the pop-up site idea will last but we are giving people a great Staycation with a licensed bar on site and live entertainment this year.

Richard is known for handling much of his business himself prior to a show, but in the days before and during a show is when he really needs a great team of staff behind him.

“My initial problem in getting back going was that because they were all seasonal workers those I’d had before had gone off and got other work, because I couldn’t give them it. Running the pop up campsite gave us the opportunity to start getting people seasonally.

“I have great family members, including my dad and my father-in-law, who work for me, but we also now have a great team back in place.

“My other Yorkshire-based events are the Whitby Traction Engine Rally next to Whitby Abbey (4-6 August) which includes a spectacular firework display on the Saturday evening and tractor pulling at dusk; and The War Weekend at Whitby (26-28 August) that covers every kind of historic event you can imagine from the two World Wars, the American Civil War, Napoleonic, medieval wars and includes re-enactments.

Richard set up his company Outdoor Shows in September 2012 having worked with the organisers of what was originally called Pickering Game & Country Fair.

“I’d worked with the original organisers while I had been studying at university and then joined them after completing my degree. I took on three events when they came out of the events game and since then I have run the Yorkshire Game & Country Fair and the Cheshire Steam Fair in Warrington and Astle Park Traction Engine Rally in Chelford.

“All of those three are really well-established shows. I’ve instigated all of the others including a brand-new Country Fair at Astle Park this year. It’s a bit of a journey getting over from Pickering to Cheshire each time I need to be across and so you’ll regularly see my van on the M62 at all sorts of silly times of day.

“But you won’t see any pedigree cattle or sheep competitions at my shows. There’s a distinct difference to my shows and the agricultural show circuit and my customers look forward to my events annually just as much as those who look forward to showing at agricultural events, that I also love dearly as a farmer’s son.

“It’s important to respect also that Malton Show is held at Scampston Hall and I don’t want to go down the route of bringing similar attractions.

“At Scampston Hall next weekend we have The Yorkshire Vet Peter Wright with us on the Sunday as Peter is releasing a new book and over the two days we have rounds of the Horseboarding UK championships.

“It features a rider on a horse with a rope attached to someone who is on an all-terrain skateboard going at 40mph. I don’t think it has been seen in Yorkshire before.