Page 7 - Newsletter spring 2022

The Worshipful Company of Farmers
The Lord Mayor’s Show
The Lord Mayor’s Show dates back to the early 13th century when King John allowed the City of London to appoint its own Lord Mayor. The newly elected Mayor then travelled down the river to pledge his alliance to the Crown at Westminster. This is why we refer to “floats” in a procession.
This year, the 693rd Lord Mayor, Alderman Vincent Keaveny travelled in the State Coach, the oldest ceremonial vehicle in the world that is still in regular use, to the Royal Courts of Justice (in Westminster). Accompanying him was the most fantastic, noisy, colourful and joyous procession and the Worshipful Company of Farmers is incredibly honoured to be part of this historic tradition. Over 6,000 people took part, 120 horses, marching bands, armed forces and over 60 decorated floats.
We were 87th in the procession, as we waited on St Martin le Grand, we watched such an amazing spectacle passing by and then it was our turn - Here come the Farmers!
What a sight we were, as we showcased the dairy industry.
Leading our procession was a New Holland T6 methane tractor, the world’s first, pulling a trailer that had a mock display of dairy products on a supermarket shelf. There were two calves in a pen and then two dairy cows, Daisy and Buttercup,
in a parlour being milked. Clusters on their udders and the milk going through a pipe to a collecting jar. (The calves and cows were fibreglass models but very realistic).
Following on was an impressive New Holland Forage Harvester. There were slogans over the display giving the public key messages. The crowd were very receptive and cheered for British farming as we passed by.
Huge thanks to the NFU, New Holland, Red Tractor and Bayley,
a dairy engineering business, for being so generous with their time and finances. Andrew Blenkiron with Richard Price coordinating on behalf of the Livery. Without all of those involved, we certainly could not have put on such an amazing display that had so much coverage on TV and social media.
As ever, we were accompanied by the Young Farmer’s Ambassadors and Surrey Docks Farm.
They joined in with enthusiasm
and zest and would you believe the Wurzels song of 1976, “I’ve got a brand-new combine harvester” is still being sung with such gusto!
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