It attracted thousands of people to the 50-acre site on Southampton Common, each of them hungry to see the entertainment and the horticultural offerings.

Bill Ledger from Bitterne was called in on the eve of the show opening as an emergency replacement for the handwriting expert needed to pen the hundreds of certificates in the horticultural classes. He penned franticly to get the job done, but did so with elegance and grace.

When the show began on July 4, 1987, Walter Piper, a shipwright with the city’s Maritime Museum could be seen on the showground lovingly restoring an old lifeboat to the condition it was in 60 years previously.

Dog lovers were given a treat with more than 1,800 dogs judged over the weekend. Golden retrievers proved to be the most popular with over 103 entered.

Children had a hoot of a time when they came face to beak with Voda the eagle owl. He was just one of the many owls on display at the Heritage Wildlife rescue exhibition.