GYSHEIFER ON THE MOOOOVE FOR HALF TERM
The GYSheifer is heading out for half term when she’s out on the moooove across Yorkshire.
The GYSheifer is a magnificent galvanised steel sculpture of the Craven Heifer which has been created to celebrate the 160thGreat Yorkshire Show.
The public is encouraged to post their selfies with #GYSheifer on Twitter during each of the next four visits. The best picture from each location will win a family ticket to the Great Yorkshire Show (2 adults & 3 children) worth £75 on the door, £65 in advance.
First off, the GYSheifer will tower over thousands of visitors on Newgate on the first day of Malton Food Lovers Festival on Saturday May 26, which attracts 30,000 visitors over two days. Malton was the last place to host the Great Yorkshire Show in 1950 before the permanent showground was bought in Harrogate where it resides to this day.
Tom Naylor-Leyland, director of the Malton Food Lovers Festival, said: “What an exciting way to kick off our tenth annual Malton Food Lovers Festival! The Festival draws in thousands of visitors every year and hosts a wide range of delicious food stalls. The GYSheifer will be quite the spectacle for our visitors on Bank Holiday Weekend.”
The GYSheifer will then head to artisan ice cream makers Yummy Yorkshire near Huddersfield on Thursday May 31for a day celebrating the best of local producers, makers and bakers. The dairy farm, with its onsite ice cream parlour and restaurant, will be hosting their monthly ‘Market on the Farm’ with over 20 traders in their covered barn.
Louise Holmes director at Yummy Yorkshire said: “We’re thrilled to host the GYSheifer for the day and are set to hold our Market on the Farm day to celebrate which will be fun for all the family. We will open up the farm’s milking parlour in the afternoon so visitors can get up close to the cows and see the process first hand…along with raw milk sampling and tractor and trailer rides.”
Its then onto Wold Top Brewery on Saturday June 2for the start of its annual Open Weekend which raises money for National Garden Scheme charities. The brewery will have a 160th Great Yorkshire Show beer on sale for the weekend which will also be on sale during the Great Yorkshire Show itself. Wold Top was supported with a grant from Yorkshire Agricultural Society when it opened and has ales sold in Fodder.
Kate Balchin from Wold Top Brewery said: “We’re really looking forward to welcoming the GYSheifer to the Yorkshire Wolds. The sculpture will be an added attraction on the first day of our annual brewery and open gardens fundraising weekend.
“It’s quite apt that we should host the GYSheifer in celebration of the 160th Great Yorkshire Show as 2018 marks the brewery’s 15th anniversary, Muddy Souls Events’ fifth anniversary and the 24th year that we have opened Hunmanby Grange’s gardens for the National Garden Scheme.”
GYSheifer on the moooove!
The GYSheifer has her final pitstop before going on display for the Great Yorkshire Show, at Our Cow Molly in Sheffield on Sunday June 10.The only dairy farm left in Sheffield which produces and bottles its own milk, delivering to businesses in the city including Co-op, Morrisons and Sheffield University. The farm shop supplies milk to the Great Yorkshire Show Cookery Theatre and will welcome over 2,000 visitors to its Open Farm Sunday where the GYSheifer will stay for the day.
Eddie Andrew from Our Cow Molly said: ‘We are really looking forward to welcoming the GYSheifer into the Our Cow Molly herd for the day. Its visit is perfect timing as it will be on site for our June 10th Open Farm Sunday event, it’s the national day farms open up to the public and a great chance to visit our farm and find out what a ‘heifer’ actually is!”.
Show organisers the Yorkshire Agricultural Society commissioned renowned Whitby-based sculptor Emma Stothard to recreate the Craven Heifer who became a national phenomenon in the 1800s. People would pay to see the heifer who was put on show on her way to Smithfield Market, London, and remains the largest heifer ever shown in England.
This iconic animal born and bred in the same era as the first Great Yorkshire Show and was the wonder of farmers across England.
Born and bred in Bolton Abbey, she was so large that a special door twice as wide as the norm had to be built to get her in and out of the cow shed. This doorway can still be seen on the Bolton Abbey Estate to this day.
The GYSheifer is a one off, bespoke, life-size sculpture in steel stands 6ft high, 4ft wide and 11ft long, weighing half a tonne.
She was created at sculptor Emma’s Whitby studio before being galvanised in Bradford and powder coated in Middlesbrough. She was then attached to a specially designed Great Yorkshire Show truck by HACS construction services in Ripley – ready for her journey.
EDITOR’S NOTES:
THE GREAT YORKSHIRE SHOW: Tuesday 10 – Thursday 12 July
- Over 130,000 visitors over three days
- 8,500 animals
- 1,200 trade stands
- 2,000 competitions
