Review of 'Cheshire Game & Country Fair (2025)'

We always find something interesting at the Cheshire Game & Country Fair held on every August bank holiday weekend on the Sunday and Monday. We attended this year on a slightly overcast Monday but very much enjoyed the visit. There is so much to see it is quite a trick to see all of the exhibition areas scattered over the massive site. It has to be said due to road closures driving in was a bit tricky as we were taken on a 5 mile detour to eventually park on the north side of the site near the showrings.

The traditional bird display was to the west of the main arena with a good number of raptors and other birds of prey on display that were taken out to the “Countryside/Dog Arena” on occasion during the day for a “Falconry Demonstration”.

To the right of main arena (west) was a large chainsaw carving area which we visited in the morning and later in the afternoon to see what the carvers were up to. It is always amazing to see these talented artists come up with using such a blunt carving tool.

Beside the chainsaw area (to the south) was “World of Dogs” which had a number of displays of different rare dog breeds (and accessory vendors) as well as various events going on such as retrieval. As my wife is a dog groomer (and lover of dogs) we always spend quite a bit of time here and I particularly find it amazing to see the dogs as they race to retrieve their prize.

The food court had the normal food and drink on offer with a covered tent in the middle arranged with picnic tables and a stage with live music throughout the day. We enjoyed some particularly good “curried goat” from a Jamaican food vendor but ended up eating on the dry earth ground as there were no places to sit…the music was ok and we spent some time listening to a local country band.

Beside the food court is the “Steam & Vintage” area with a small motorcycle and car display along with a few steam engine tractors and miniature steam engines (nothing like Astle Park Traction Engine Rally though - MUCH smaller).

A particularly interesting display in the main “Andy Singleton” arena was a display by the Heart of Horsemanship Equestrian Stunt Team which was at pains to demonstrate how their relationship with their horses is that of mutual respect. They started their demonstration showing exactly that with the riders on bareback and without any reigns, using their body language to request their horse move in a particular direction or at a particular speed - Astonishing. The demonstration continued to showing more traditional horse stunts such as standing on the back of the horses or doing acrobatic moves around the saddle.

The “Heart of Horsemanship Equestrian Stunt Team” has to have been the highlight of our visit this year though “The British Scurry and Trials Driving Arena Challenge” which included one of our new favourites “horseboarding” (skateboarders being towed behind a horse VERY fast on the grass) was quite amazing. The speeds they get up to tearing around the arena and around the obstacles is truly incredible and very exciting.

There were the normal shopping tents on site along with a couple of vintage fair ground rides. Skeet shooting was, as always, underway all day at the edge of the “World of Dogs” area so the day was accompanied by the occasional sound of guns going off. We did spend a few hours out of the sun (and sitting down) in the cooking demonstration tent but they were not cooking anything terribly interesting. We skipped out on the “Wild West Show” having seen it in the past and not being terribly impressed (a bunch of amateur actors walking around a flimsy set and shooting off loud guns and falling over “dead” only after having been hit 40-50 times is not my idea of entertainment…).

All in all, a really good day and we will be looking at returning in 2026. The people are friendly, there is a lot to see and it is always interesting.

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2025-08-25

Location: Cheshire (England)

Address: Clay House Farm, Flittogate Ln, Tabley Knutsford, ENGLAND

Telephone: +44 (0) 1565 650200

URL: https://www.royalcheshireshow.org/

Basically, a couple of very large farming fields that are used to host events.