Organisers of Dufton Show had to dig deep into their finances to make sure the event goes ahead on Saturday after some vital items were stolen.
Thieves struck last week to take around 400 fence posts due to be used to create the main arena and other rings at the popular village show, often known as the Fellside Royal.
The culprits probably had no trouble fencing their haul, with the wooden posts being in strong demand and worth about £4 each.
Accordinhg to show secretary Amy Titterington, the posts had been kept out of sight beside a container in which other show equipment was stored. Unfortunately, the container was too full to accommodate the wooden posts.
Amy said: “The container is up a little lane, tucked in some trees, and unless you looked around you wouldn’t know it was there. They must have been searching for something to take.”
The posts’ disappearance was discovered by the show’s chief field steward, Mike Parkin, who noticed last week that some had gone missing and then found all of them had been taken when he returned on Thursday, August 18. The police were informed.
“We’d built our stock of posts up over the years and have had to replace all of them, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to lay the field out,” said Amy, “It’s been a blow to the committee’s finances and we’ve got our fingers crossed we have a good day on Saturday to help make up for it.”
She added that she had been told there had been a number of thefts from farms in the area in recent times.
