THE Great Yorkshire Show ended yesterday with organisers claiming the event a resounding success.

An estimated 125,000 people passed through the gates over the three days.

Entries in the competitive classes in the show were the second highest in the event's 146th year history.

The 3,203 livestock entries were the highest ever recorded.

Honorary show director Christopher Hall said: "It has been an enormously successful show and lovely to see the agricultural industry in good heart, even if it is still a very difficult time when everybody gets back to their farms.

"The figures are absolutely tremendous and underline the fact that the Great Yorkshire Show is a premier date in the farming calendar and hopefully that the industry is recovering.

"We pride ourselves on being a shop window of agricultural excellence for both farmers and for those who have little contact year-round with the countryside."

As well as a large number of children attending the show on the final day, show bosses entertained several politicians making the trip to Harrogate from London.

MP Ben Bradshaw, Minister for Nature Conservation, visited the Limestone County Project. The scheme is introducing rational grazing regimes of special scientific interest.

He said: "It is a beautiful showground and we are lucky to have one with so many permanent structures. It is beautifully maintained and there is lots to do and see.

"I am here to look at one or two areas where farmers are using government subsidies to bring environmental improvements to the land they buy."

Shadow Agricultural Minister John Whittingdale also visited the show. The MP used his visit to criticise government plans to reform the Common Agricultural Policy.

He said: "These are the biggest agricultural changes in a decade. Farmers want to know what is going to happen in order that they can run their businesses.

"But the Government is not giving them the information they need."

Other visitors included 12 Russian children who live near the site of the Chernobyl disaster. They are spending a month on holiday in North Yorkshire.

Annual trips help the children's immune system, which was affected by radioactive fallout.