Facts of buying and selling the traditional rural way

MANY farmers were cut to the core at the beginning of the year when former NFU vice-president Paul Temple called for livestock auctions to go online.

His argument was that animals could be bought and sold electronically. The furore that followed provided the inspiration to visit every one of Yorkshire’s surviving livestock markets to discover if they thriving or an outdated way of doing business.

Markets have always been a magnet to me. But is this outdated sentimentality? Quite possibly – one of my earliest memories is going to market with my grandpa. He was born into a family of farmers who also dealt in cattle and horses. I can remember the excitement of Irish bullocks arriving. By then, in the late 1970s it would be the tail end of the glory days of them coming over the Irish Sea.

My mother’s family also loved market days. We have diaries going back over a hundred years and they note the weight, price and who the animals were sold to. Market day was a real family day out. More often than not “mother came”, with banking and shopping done at the same time.

Farm sales punctuated my childhood. One memory is sitting up high on seating made of straw bales as my parents bought a massive red and white bull called Goddard in Hereford. There was also the selling of thoroughbred yearlings through the sale rings (proper seats here) at Doncaster and Newmarket. Ponies would come and go (some quicker than others if they misbehaved) to the horse sales.

There were still bow-legged gents in tweed and ladies in headscarves who knew what they were on about.

Afternoon school was skipped for a horse market.

Years later it was from the salerooms that we bought bits and bobs of furniture and paintings.

There’s a buzz and banter about markets that has to be experienced.

In our homogenised world it’s grand to meet a proper character. Somebody wearing their cap at a jaunty angle or living off their wits, buying one week and selling the next. There are still pubs that come to life on market day. Many serving more mugs of tea than pints of beer.

But I may be looking through rose-tinted glasses at a system that puts animals through the stress of going under the hammer when they could perhaps be sold from A to B without passing through a sale ring.

So I set off on my journey of discovery, beginning at Bentham Market, 10 miles on from Settle.

There’s a distinctive smell at the market - sawdust. It’s not just peppered around the animals’ pens, there’s a good deep layer of it, even in the middle of the salering.

Around it I hear the phrase, “We used to be in dairy…” If I had a pound for every time someone said this it would have paid for the petrol.

Trade was buoyant and there was plenty of banter among marketgoers and an encouraging smattering of younger faces. But times have changed. Many that have milked for generations are now concentrating on sheep, with a good number moving over to keeping some beef cattle as well.

For some, there’s sadness that the younger generation weren’t interested in the early mornings that go hand-in-hand with dairy farming. For others it’s more to do with prices.

The auctioneer, Stephen Dennis, is a bit of a bright spark and doesn’t look old enough to have been at the market for 30 years.

He came here not long after his studies at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and was bred to take to the rostrum, with his late father David Dennis part of a Kirkbymoorside-based business, Kendrew and Dennis.

Stephen’s brother Paul also works for the same firm that runs Bentham Market, Richard Turner and Sons. Stephen is married to Andrea and they have a daughter, 21 year-old Susanna and three boys – Sam, 17, Isaac, 16 and 14 year-old John.

Might be another auctioneer among them? Apparently one or two are “cheeky enough”.

Ironically, foot and mouth played its part in breathing new life into the market. “We were a co-ordination point,” says Stephen. “By helping the farmers they probably realised how important the live market system is. Without it the bottom drops out of the trade.”

This is echoed strongly by Bob Brown, who recently retired as chairman of the board.

“Without livestock markets supermarkets would keep the prices down,” he says.

He still farms at Ingleton – used to be in dairy – and keeps his hand in because his son supplements the farm with contracting work.

“I’ve a job to do,” he says, refusing the offer of a cup of tea in the market café. He lets each and every animal into the ring to be sold, manning the gate with the deftness of somebody half his age.

“Been kicked plenty of times,” he reveals. “But wouldn’t miss a Wednesday market.”

In the office Yvonne Capstick, Sandra Brayshaw, Val Lawson and Sarah Wallbank are kept busy sorting out the masses of paperwork that goes hand-in-hand with modern farming.

Yvonne sits next to Stephen in the rostrum, clerking down the price each animal fetches. Sarah does the same job at the evening market, which starts about 4.30pm and can go on as late as midnight.

“There’s quite a social side to the evening market, with a lot of farmers liking it as they can get a day’s work done before coming,” says Yvonne.

“Farmers don’t get out much during lambing and other busy times, so the market is a very important place. People who don’t understand markets don’t realise what a huge part of country people’s lives they are.”

Another rare female face is Jeanie Stainton’s who has run the market café since 1979. Assisted by her daughter, Debbie Taylor, she’s here at 7.30am every Wednesday and doesn’t leave until after the evening sale. Everything – apart from the pork pies which come from Ingleton – is home-made.

Jeanie, who kept 60 sheep herself, says, “Steak pie is the best seller.

“I love it here. There’s a really friendly atmosphere.” She shows me to the ladies, which must be in contention for the best market lavatory.

A final word goes to Ken Strickland who at the age of five or six started coming here with his father. He’d not long had his hip replaced.

“Missed market for one week – that’s all,” he said. “Take more than an operation to keep me away …”

Sarah’s series continues in future weeks.

Inside Bentham Market

Built in 1903, the market has grown beyond recognition in recent years and there are redevelopment plans. On the day of our visit, the Wednesday sale started at 11am, with around 30 newly-calved dairy cattle, followed by 300 sheep with lambs at foot and then 100 rearing calves. A good entry considering the market had hosted its big monthly sale the day before. In the evening, around 5,000 further sheep were sold.

Bentham & District Farmers’ Auction Mart. 015242 61444 www.benthamauction.co.uk