Country Mouse on judging trade-stands at a country show
Kate Green thinks that being charming to customers is a crucial, and fast vanishing, skill


I have discovered that there's more to judging tradestands than a fancy badge and a good lunch. At the Royal County of Berkshire Show, a personal steward and a mapped pathway through the vast showground are provided, but the 60-odd stands in the local category include British Gas, biomass boilers and basket weavers.
There are gleaming tractors, eco-friendly detergents and frothy millinery. I count balloons and identify owl species with the Young Farmers and taste smoky cheese at Cherry Tree. Only the wool judge separating a snowball-shaped sheep (Scottish blackface) from one like an Afghan hound (Leicester longwool) seems to have a more bewildering task.
Attitude soon becomes the decider. Out goes the jeweller who doesn't look up from his book, the lazy heaps of plastic bags, the gormless staff and charities whose messages are blocked by scruffiness. In comes the real welcome at the Salvation Army tent, Dylan Williams's smart yet friendly Really Wild Clothing Company-his recent clay-pigeon shoot raised nearly £300,000 for Great Ormond Street-and, in first place, the jolly farmer producing birdseed. Farmer Brown has a good product, a cheerful apron and a tidy stand, but, above all, he has charm.
* Subscribe to Country Life and save up to £50
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by His Majesty The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
-
You can’t always rely on the Great British summer — but you can rely on its watches
British watchmakers have excelled themselves in recent months — releasing bright and beautiful timepieces that you'll want on your wrist through summer, and beyond.
-
Simon Jenkins: 50 years of saving Britain's buildings, from triumphs and disasters to the great country house we bought for £1
In 1975, a new organisation was set up with the express aim of saving Britain's most beautiful and historic buildings from the wrecking ball. How has SAVE fared in the 50 years since then far? Simon Jenkins — who was involved as a trustee right from the very start — looks back on half a century of successes... and one or two painful failures.