This week for Looking Back, we will be looking back at an agricultural society's show through the years.

The Melplash Agricultural Society has organised the Melplash Agricultural Show for more than 170 years.

Thank you to Kathy Dare for helping to source the pictures and for providing information on the history of the show.

Although the exact details are slightly uncertain, the origins of the society and show go back to October, 20 1846, the day that Melplash Village Church was consecrated.

The church had been built by Mr James Bandinell of Melplash Court, a well-known benefactor, and a new parish was carved out of the parish of Netherbury.

On the same day, a ploughing match was held to resolve a dispute between two farmers as to whose ploughman was the better.

Each farmer staked £5, and in the celebrations put on for the consecration of the church and at the feast that was held in the Melplash Inn, now the Half Moon, the assembled farmers and landowners agreed to form the Melplash Agricultural Society and held a ploughing competition open to all on October, 20 1847, beginning the association between the village of Melplash, the church, the society, the ploughing match and the show.

Before the Second World War, it was customary to hold the show in alternate years at Bridport and Beaminster.

After the show was suspended throughout the war, it restarted permanently in Bridport in 1946.

In 1945, there was no show, just a hedging and ploughing competition, and in 1946, classes were reduced.

There were no classes for sheep, pigs or dairy, but there were entries in hunter classes, cart horse and cattle.

The show also featured a well-filled horticultural tent, which had a brand new feature, home produce and handicraft organised by the WI, and the Dorchester Police band provided the entertainment in the main ring.

It was initially held in the fields opposite the Crown Inn (on the site of Groves), and by 1948, the show was held on its present ground in West Bay Road.

The cost of running the show in 1949 was around £2000.

In the 1960s, the show began to be held on a Thursday, early closing day in Bridport.

Charles Tamar Phillips (father of Mrs May Walbridge) purchased the land west of West Bay Road in 1919 and sold building plots alongside the road in the 1920s.

The land behind the houses has been the showground since, and was gifted by Mrs Walbridge after her death in August 1998.

Today, the society is a registered charity, with the aim of promoting and improving agriculture and horticulture in West Dorset for the public benefit.

The Melplash Show continues to focus on farming, countryside and rural life, and brings together the very best of West Dorset with animals, food, fun and entertainment.

It is held annually at the West Bay Showground on the last Thursday before the August bank holiday, and attracts an average of more than 20,000 visitors.

This year the show will take place on Thursday, August 23 at the showground.

To find out more, visit melplashshow.co.uk