“It would be amazing to win something,” says Marguerite Benson, en route to the annual Egton Bridge Gooseberry Show in North Yorkshire. “Especially this year because we’ve had everything you can – sawflies, wasps, birds got into the cage a week ago. Talk about stress. These little berries that we have nurtured are like our… children.” Egton Bridge is the UK’s oldest gooseberry show, held on the first Tuesday of every August since the 1800s, apart from forced breaks due to foot and mouth disease and Covid. Benson and her partner Dr John Snape, who cares for the berries, have had many years of frustration, but they are optimistic this time. “We’ve got a chance,” he says of the berries, carefully transferred to a home-labeled Marks & Spencer scone tin, the word “scones” crossed out and replaced with “gooseberry”. “It’s just a fantastic tradition and it’s important, it’s part of our heritage,” says Benson. “With the weather we have, keeping the berries until the first of August is a challenge because they ripen so early. But we’re crossing our fingers.” The event takes place on the first Tuesday of every August from 1800, with a discount on mandatory breaks. Derek Hardacre from Cheshire with his gooseberries. Photo: Jill Mead/The Guardian Julia Bennison has been coming to the show since she was a baby. She can pick out her great-great-grandfather Linus Bennison from old photos on display. Her dad, Bob, is president of the society, and she and her siblings all join. Her gooseberries have been grown in Newcastle, where she now lives and works as a director of nursing. “I’ve got some good gooseberries this year, it takes a while for the bushes to get established and they’re good. I think I have a good pair of twins and I have a heavy green too. I’m happy this year, maybe I’ll win an award.” Like other growers, she says there’s no big secret to growing large gooseberries other than care and attention, although she has fond memories of the fertilizer her father used when she was a child. “We used to go out to Osmotherley one day and spend the whole day rounding up sheep,” she says, possibly joking, perhaps not. No one knows why the craze for growing giant gooseberries began, but there is evidence that it was a hobby in the industrial areas of England in the late 18th and 19th centuries. a grower’s currants. Photo: Jill Mead/The Guardian The Egton Bridge Show started in the 1800s and is still going strong, held this year for the first time at the luxurious Egton Manor, a wedding and event venue. Many of the old traditions remain, with all the gooseberries carefully weighed on an oil-moistened, double-pot scale that has been in use since 1937. Graeme Watson, the society’s president and something of a master grower and gooseberry guru, says growing them is a labor of love. “There’s a lot that can go wrong over the course of a year, so the better you look after them, the bigger they’ll grow. There’s a gooseberry sawmill, mice like that, somebody had rats attack them on a share… blackbirds love them, wasps.’ Keeping the show going is important, he says. “We are the custodians. It’s our job to maintain it. It’s not for everyone, but we’re trying to encourage more growers to want to do it.” Everyone the Guardian speaks to says they enjoy the taste of gooseberry. If they are bitter then they are not ripe enough. A gooseberry lover at the event. Photo: Jill Mead/The Guardian The pride and competitive spirit displayed in the competition is evident, although no one cares about the glamour. Leek fairs in the North East of England once offered prize money to thousands. At Egton Bridge, near Whitby, prizes on offer range from plastic watering cans (in four colors) and wellies to tins of biscuits and tea bags. The show attracts gooseberry lovers from far and wide. Chris Jones, a 70-year-old retired lorry driver, has traveled from Goostrey to Cheshire, “the epicenter of gooseberry farming”, he says. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every day at 7am. BST He entered ’cause we’re allowed, it’s an open competition. Plus it’s a good excuse to come and talk to like-minded growers and see the differences in growing.” Like others, it has no growing secrets. Or so he says. “Honestly, my only advice is to get good trees, good stock… that’s all you need.”
