FARMING MATTERS: Memories of covering my first Bucks County Show

Tomorrow (Thursday) I will be at Bucks County Show doing my job as a journalist, reporting on the show for video and newspaper stories.
Journalist Heather Jan Brunt, right, working at her first Bucks County ShowJournalist Heather Jan Brunt, right, working at her first Bucks County Show
Journalist Heather Jan Brunt, right, working at her first Bucks County Show

And the best news this year is that National Farmers Union president Meurig Raymond is coming to the show. This is a great chance for farmers to speak to the man who has regular direct access to David Cameron and the folk in Brussels.

These days, my interest in the show isn’t only from a professional point of view. I clearly have a personal interest as a farmer’s wife. And it’s always lovely to walk around the showground and see so many people that I know from the two worlds that I belong to - the media and farming . When I covered my very first Bucks County Show I was a trainee reporter on The Bucks Advertiser, at that time owned by Home Counties Newspapers, and based in Church Street.

Those were the days when we had a full rota of staff and photographers covering the show, and there was a press tent provided to accommodate us all. The Advertiser came out on the Friday and the show was on the Thursday, so we had to work quickly during the morning to get enough words and pictures to create a splash in the paper the next day.

We took our typewriters (!!) to the showground and typed up stories in the tent, then one of the photographers would take our copy back to the office with their rolls of film for processing.

It was at my first show that I bought a pork pie and a packet of fudge for a farmer I had just met. That night, after the show, I gave them to him while he was ploughing one of his fields. He’s my husband now.

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