Television and radio presenter Sybil Ruscoe is the guest speaker at a special dinner next month to celebrate 70 years of the Moreton Show.

The dinner, on Saturday, February 2, at the Frogmill Hotel at Shipton Oliffe, near Andoversford, is being held to mark 70 years since the formation of the Moreton-in-Marsh and District Agricultural and Horse Show Society and the first staging of the Moreton Show in 1949.

Tickets, priced at £45, are available for the 70th anniversary dinner by calling the Moreton Show office on 01608 651908 or emailing secretary@moretonshow.co.uk.

The first Moreton Show was the biggest event ever to have been held in the north Cotswolds, attracting 2,000 visitors to the showground on the Batsford Estate. It has continued to grow ever since, with more than 20,000 people coming through the gates for last year’s show.

Moreton Show chairman Ed Hicks said: "This year is a real milestone for Moreton Show, which we want to celebrate. It’s important, when farming is facing a new agricultural revolution, to celebrate the wonderful work done over 70 years by our society.

"The society was established to promote farming and traditional countryside skills and to educate people about the food they eat. That job is still key to the future of British agriculture."

A journalist for more than 40 years, Sybil’s career has encompassed newspapers, radio and television. Sybil worked on BBC Radio 1, where she and Simon Mayo won the Royal Variety Club’s Radio Personality of the Year Award and even fronted the legendary Top of the Pops and Radio 1 Roadshows.

For five years, she presented Ruscoe & Co, the afternoon show on BBC Radio 5 Live and she was the first woman to present television coverage of Test cricket when the game was broadcast by Channel 4. More recently, Sybil has become a presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today and On Your Farm.

She said: "Moreton Show is always a terrific event in the farming calendar, showcasing all that’s best about the British countryside. I’m proud to be helping to celebrate 70 years of the society, which is so much part of the Cotswolds countryside."