Learning for Life at Westmorland County Show

The Learning for Life Marquee, an established and integral part of Westmorland County Show proves more and more popular every year. It is a chance for schools local to South Cumbria and North Lancashire to showcase the brilliant work they do throughout the term.

Packed with interactive displays, arts, environmental projects, sciences, crafts, IT projects and more, this marquee is definitely the most colourful on all the Showground, with activities for all ages. As a result of schools becoming involved with the Learning for Life Marquee, children are introduced and participate in their local County Show from a young age, gaining fantastic experience of the countryside and agriculture in an environment like no other.

If you would like to exhibit in the Learning for Life Marquee, please contact us

Farm Open Days

On Tuesday 23^rd and Thursday 25^th June 2026, the Westmorland County Agricultural Society were proud to once again host the bi-annual Primary School Farm Open Days at Heaves Farm, Levens by kind permission of the Mason family. Over 1,400 pupils from across Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire were able to step on to a working dairy farm and explore the links between farming and the food that reaches their plate whilst also discovering the importance of agriculture and sustainable farming.

With 30 different bases located around the farm, children and teachers were able to get a real insight into different aspects of farming and agriculture from sheep shearing, butchery, milking, poultry, dry stone walling, calving and much more! The society were delighted to welcome Yan Vets, LEAF education, the Dry-Stone Walling Association, Massey Feeds, Rural Crime Police Team, Farmgate Vets, MB Nutrition, Kendal College, the WI and Croft Gardens Honey Ltd to be a part of the event and pass on their knowledge to the pupils who attended.

The Farm Open Days simply wouldn’t have been possible without the support of 269 demonstrators and volunteers who kindly gave up their time to support the event through set up/take down and showing school groups around the demonstration areas, answering any questions and providing students with a greater understanding of the farm to fork journey.

Across the 2 days, the society were honoured to welcome our president, Mr John Cooke, alongside Cllr Helen Ladhams (Mayor of Kendal), Ms Caz Graham (Deputy Lieutenant and Radio 4 presenter), Ms Shirely Fawcett (High Sherriff of Cumbria), Mr Philip Adams (Education Operations and Impacts Lead at LEAF education) and Ms Emily Ashworth from the Farmers Guardian. During their guided tour around the farm, they visited many of the educational bases which expanded their knowledge of farming and the countryside.

The event was kindly supported by Northwest Farmers Trust, Cumbria Community Foundation, Cumberland Building Society, Muller Milk and CGP Books. Thanks to the support of Muller Milk, every student that arrived on farm was able to leave with a carton of fresh milk to enjoy which helped the children understand the full cycle of dairy production from the farm to the supermarkets.

CGP Chairman Richard Parsons said: “CGP is an educational publisher based in Cumbria, so we were very happy to sponsor the Farm Open Days – it’s a great idea to show kids how farming works and where their food comes from. We’ve always had close ties with local farms and farmers, and we’ve supported many agricultural projects over the years. This year’s Open Days were a big success, and we’re glad we could do our bit to help.”

 The British Free Range Egg Producers Association, NFU and AHDB kindly donated literature for the teachers to take back to class for additional learning following on from the class visits to the farm. WCAS were delighted to be able to pass these on to the Primary Schools to enable them to continue asking questions and discover more about British farming building on from their knowledge learnt at Heaves Farm.

The society have received some wonderful feedback from local school groups and teachers who are already excited for the 2028 Farm Open Days, so I think it’s safe to say that everyone thoroughly enjoyed their visit to the farm.

Farm to Fork Roadshow

As part of the Rural Links initiative, WCAS take their Farm to Fork Roadshow out and about across the county and beyond. The aim of the Roadshow is to inspire and educate the general public about farming and where their food comes from. From Farm to Fork, the journey of eggs, milk and meat is explained by our volunteers, with the help of ‘Clover’ the wooden dairy cow, and our jig-animals, Ditto the Lamb, Clarissa the beef cow and Percy the Pig. These jig-animals are always a huge hit with parents and children, and are fantastic in helping the public reconnect with where their food comes from and how it is produced.

Our Farm to Fork Roadshow wouldn’t be the same without farm animals of course and we regularly bring day old chicks for children to hold, sheep, lambs, dairy cows and their calves for the public to meet.

Having had the Farm to Fork Roadshow go into two Barclays Bank branches locally, and also to an inner city school in Manchester, where their playing fields were turned into a farm for the day, it is an extremely diverse and adaptable Roadshow, which proves extremely popular wherever it goes.

Volunteers

We are always looking for new and enthusiastic volunteers to help out at our many events! By assisting at one or more of our events throughout the calendar you are supporting our charitable aims and objectives to promote and improve Agriculture and Horticulture.

This can be through events such as Country Fest, or the County Show – that share and promote best practice and new ideas or through our School visits, Open Farm school Days and farm to fork events where we have the chance to reach and educate a wide range of people. From selling tickets, car parking, stewarding or helping with show set up there really is a role for everyone.

If you are interested in becoming a Volunteer please get in touch – manager@westmorland.org.uk

Rural Links

Rural Links is an initiative set up by Westmorland County Agricultural Society which focuses on developing the understanding of the countryside, agriculture and rural life and promoting its importance both to people who live in rural areas and to the wider community through volunteer-led events.

Our aim is to spread the message as broadly as possible, and to encourage people from all walks of life to learn about the essential part agriculture and farming plays nationally and globally.

Rural Links works with schools in our biennial Farm Open Days and also takes the ‘Farm to Fork Roadshow’ out to local events, whilst being linked with other rural organisations and companies, in order to coordinate resources and to enhance relationships.

The initiative enables WCAS to help fulfil its role as an Agricultural Society working with the Rural Community in mind to maintain what has always been a vibrant way of life, as well as moving forward and addressing the current issues facing agriculture and making it accessible to the wider community.