at several places in the town. Then follows Carnival week, culminating in a procession at the beginning of July. August brings the Bakewell Arts Festival, a music and theatre event begun in 1997. The Peak Literary Festival is held in the spring and autumn of each year. The spring one starts on the last Friday in May and the autumn one on the last Friday in October. Until 2017 The Bakewell Agricultural Show was among the largest covered agricultural shows in the UK, attracting about 65,000 visitors. It took place on the first Wednesday and Thursday in August at the Bakewell Showground. Known also as the Little Royal, it was founded by Wootten Burkinshaw Thomas in 1819. In 2018 and 2019 (the bicentennial year), the Bakewell Show was suspended in favour of more lucrative commercial events. Sport and recreation Rugby union is played regularly by Bakewell Mannerians RUFC, which competes in Midlands 2 East (North). Bakewell has a recreation park to the east of the centre, with tennis courts, a children's playground, and football and cricket pitches. Near the library there is a municipal swimming pool and gym. The River Wye provides a popular riverside walk. The town's association football team, Bakewell Town F.C., competes in the Central Midlands Football League Premier Division North. Stephen Downing case The Stephen Downing case involved the conviction and imprisonment in 1974 of a 17-year-old council worker, Stephen Downing, for the murder of a 32-year-old legal secretary in Bakewell Cemetery. After a campaign by a local newspaper, his conviction was overturned in 2002, by which time Downing had served 27 years in prison. This is thought to be the longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, and attracted worldwide media attention. Media In literature Bakewell is named by the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet as the town from which she travelled to Pemberley in Chapter 43 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. On television Bakewell features in the last episode of Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders, where the team covers a Christmas Eve murder in the 1800s. In 2010 the Rutland Arms Hotel featured in an episode of The Hotel Inspector. For "Puddings Week" in Season 1 of The Great British Bake Off, the tent was pitched in a car park in Bakewell. See also Listed buildings in Bakewell Picture gallery References Notes Bibliography Town Without Pity, Don Hale, Century (4 April 2002), Bakewell: The Ancient