Earliest Provincial Agricultural Society

[Thomas Bewick]

Hello: I have a silver cup engraved: From the Agricultural Society to Mr Ralph Sanderson for Shewing the Best Stallion, Durham, March 31 1791.

Does anyone know when the Durham Agricultural Society began to meet or award prizes? I suspect that this cup could be early for an agricultural prize?
Is Durham I wonder, one of the earliest provincial agricultural societies?

Thank you

[Nutmeg]

It is quite early as it seems that the Durham society was formed in 1783.( But many societies seem to have been in existence by the 1760s at least, according to newspaper reports.) A notice in the Newcastle Courant of Saturday 13 September 1783, p.2 appears to record the first meeting on 30 August 1783. The following year the Agriculture Society for the County of Durham offered a prize for stallions and bulls ( Newcastle Courant - Saturday 27 March 1784, p.4 ). There doesn't seem to be a newspaper report on the award to Ralph Sanderson in 1791.

[Lin Thorley]

The Bath Society (now the Royal Bath and West) began in 1777. Even then not the first, but very near the beginning. After that they came thick and fast

[JohnEDavies]

The Brecknockshire Agricultural Society was established in March 1755