A 19th century presentation cup is set to return to Brecon after being discovered over 9,000 miles away from home.

Linda Turney, who lives in Australia, came across the cup while sorting out her mother’s estate, recognising that the item belonged to her husband’s family.

The inscription on the cup reads: “Breconshire Agricultural Society, Presented by the Marquis of Camden to Mr John Handley for the Best Crop of Turnips 1871.”

After the find, Ms Turney got in touch with the Brecknockshire Agricultural Society and offered them the antique item. She mentioned that she has no family members who could inherit the cup, so wanted to find it an appropriate home.

The society secretary exchanged emails with Ms Turney about the history of the society and said that they would be delighted to receive the cup.

The founding of the society is well documented. In March 1755, a group of 16 men, mostly county landowners, met at the Golden Lion Hotel in Lion Street, now the site of Bethel Square in town of Brecon.

The objective of the meeting was to form a hunting club, although in the event they decided on a different endeavour. Mr Charles Powell of Castell Madoc, Lower Chapel had been in correspondence with the Gentlemen’s Magazine, which was followed by discussions with Col Williams of Gwernyfed and Pendry Williams of Penpont.

The meeting resolved that it would form a group to “do something to support and encourage Agriculture, Manufacturing and promoting the general good of the County of Brecon”.

This having been agreed they met again in April and formally established the Brecknockshire Agricultural Society. It remains the oldest surviving agricultural society in the UK and probably the world.

The annual Brecon County Show is held annually on the first Saturday in August, now on the Showground fields, Watton Villa, and is the visible public activity of the Society. The show has continued with just four forced breaks - in 2001 due to the foot and mouth outbreak, in 2009 with an extreme weather forecast and in 2020/21 because of restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic.

Brecon County Show also runs a Growing of Crops Competition, where participating farms are visited by the Crop Judge during the month of July who has the unenviable task of judging the various crops that have been entered into the competition.

The results and prizes of the Crop Growing Competition are announced at the Annual Gwynne Griffiths and Brecon County Show Awards evening held annually in November.

It is now the intention to use the new-found cup as the “Mr John Handley Perpetual Memorial Cup” for the judge’s choice of crop, as turnips are now rarely grown in the area.