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Royal Bath and West Show

agricultural show in England

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ7373796
Source-derived summary

The Royal Bath and West is an agricultural show for the West of England. Held every year at its permanent show ground near Shepton Mallet, Somerset, it is one of a number of County shows in the United Kingdom and is a four-day show. In 2009 and 2010 it attracted over 155,000 people.

Background

The Royal Bath and West Show is organised and run by the Royal Bath and West of England Society. It was founded in 1777 in Bath by a group of philanthropists led by Edmund Rack, and is now a registered charity organisation (1039397). The Society was formed with the aims of encouraging agriculture, arts, manufacture and commerce.

The show

The annual show was initiated at Taunton in 1852 and was originally peripatetic. It was held on Durdham Down in Bristol in 1886 and again in 1921. Latterly it was held in Bath in 1912 and 1927. Exeter's Whipton Barton Exhibition Fields hosted the show in 1909 and 1954.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Royal Bath and West Show” is agricultural show in England. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Royal, Bath and West, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009, 2010, 1777, 1852—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Royal, Bath and West is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “agricultural show in England” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7373796. Authority coordinates are 51.157, -2.526. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009, 2010, 1777 and 1852.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Royal Bath and West Show”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Royal Bath and West Show primary sources, Royal Bath and West Show archive and Royal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Royal Bath and West Show”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Royal Bath and West Show” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.