VISCOUNT Boyne, one of Shropshire's major landowners and president of the Burwarton and District Farmers Club, looked on as the prize winners lined up.

His servant William Butler collected £1 as second prize for shearing three sheep in under 90 minutes "in the most workmanlike manner" .

William Noakes, who also worked for the Viscount, had second prize as "the farmer's son or servant, under 18 years of age, who shall shear two sheep in the most workmanlike manner". He collected 50p. Several minutes later, there was a 150p first prize to T Lamb "for the best kept garden and premises occupied by an agricultural labourer".

Mr Lamb was also employed by his lordship. At the same ceremony he went up again to receive a third prize as the "servant of a member who shall have reared the largest family without parochial relief". He was given 25p, or less than 3p for each of his nine children.

This was 1895, when Queen Victoria had been on the throne nearly 60 years, her empire stretched around the world and the Great War was two decades away. It was the fifth year of the Burwarton Show.

The account of the annual prize meeting took up four closely printed columns in a local paper. Someone clipped them out and stuck them on page one of an album. He or she continued collecting items connected with Burwarton and other agricultural topics until the early days of Edward VII. A century later the album was for sale in the window of the Cats Protection League in Ludlow.

"Times have certainly changed," Robert Tindall, chairman of the present day Burwarton & District Agricultural Society, chuckled when I showed him the album in his office. It would be politically incorrect to talk of servants and reward them for their large families. Farmers would think twice before shearing a sheep in mid-September, when the shows were held in the 1890s.

A typical show of the period offered a 50p prize for the best collection of six marigolds, six swedes and six tur-nips. There would be 50p for the "most artistic design in butter made". The nearest to a gymkhana was a "horse leaping" competition of only one class. A brass band would play patriotic items like "Soldiers of the Queen."

There was bareback cart horse racing but that survived for one year only. A so-called Industrial Section gave prizes for knitted socks, a flannel petticoat, a pair of darned socks, a patchwork quilt, a plain nightdress and a loaf of bread. There were also egg and spoon races, sack races and trundling a barrel for 80 yards. In 1898 a ventriloquist arrived with his performing dog Toby and a Punch and Judy show.

Nowadays, Burwarton is still a one-day event. This year it is on August 7. Its president is still Viscount Boyne, even if he is the great, great grandson of the Viscount of more than a century ago.

About 20,000 people are likely to turn up. They will see classes for cattle, sheep, goats, hunters and ponies in four rings. The programme for the main ring includes heavy horses, in-hand and ridden hunters, open show jumping, the Honda Imps Display Team, pet lambs and local dog racing.

There will not be, as there was in 1904, an exhibition of Cromwell relics including his hat and his sword but a food hall, a clay pigeon shoot, a shopping arcade and a craft demonstration marquee might compensate. Visitors come by car rather than, as they could briefly, arrive on the two-coach railway line from Cleobury Mortimer to Ditton Priors.

First prizes are higher these days and range up to £46 for livestock. Admission for an adult is now £5, instead of 2 1/2p but it still promises to be a great show.