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Royal Smithfield Show
The Royal Smithfield Club was formed in 1798 to showcase the best of prime fatstock produced on British farms. At that time there was no Royal prefix - that did not come until 1960. The show had a number of homes in London over the first 150 years before moving to Earls Court in 1949. The show, during the latter years became a showcase for agricultural machinery and technology as well as livestock. A significant number of agricultural machinery manufacturers has stands at the show. The show ceased to be a London based event in 2004, moving to a number of showground's around the UK.

The demise of the show in London was viewed as a real loss to agriculture by the farming population. The annual and later bi-annual pilgrimage of the countryside to London just before Christmas was, for many, quite an event in the farming calendar.