WYOG History
The origins of the Group go back to a meeting held in February 1955 to arrange for a display at the Great Yorkshire Show. When the show moved to a permanent site in Harrogate, two organic growers in Yorkshire – Arthur Ball a market gardener from Masham and Michael Thompson, a farmer from Raywell, suggested to the Soil Association that it should be represented at this major event to spread the organic message. The response was to put them in touch with each other and to supply a list of members in Yorkshire and to challenge them to organise it.
Annual Show
The annual show started 1989 Hipperholme church Sunday afternoon, mainly organised by Jack and Joyce Tindall and from the start it was a show to be judged on taste. In the third year of the show’s life it moved to the Clarke Foley centre in Ilkley with coverage from the BBC woman’s reporter and a Guardian photographer attending. In 1993 the show moved to Cleckheaton Town Hall for several years, then to Carlisle Business Centre in Bradford in 1999 for its 10th anniversary, and from 2000 it has been at it current home at Shipley College in Saltaire.
