Tablecloths and budget prices help to pull in the crowds

Don’t ask the price – it’s 50p. Chris Berry continues our series on Yorkshire marts by visiting one which bucked the closure trend.

Do you know where you can go out for a decent cup of tea or coffee for just 50p these days? Pass.

Pateley Bridge Auction Mart has the answer. It possesses its own café in what used to be a school building which has now branched out from being a cut-price café solely for farmers and is now opening six-days-a-week.

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It’s just one example of the spirit of enterprise which has helped a small livestock market in the heart of Nidderdale to survive when all around them neighbouring marts have been closing in the past 15 years.

The café is now called Teacups and is run by two female former truckers, Sam Jackson and Ronni Robinson. They only started opening daily last year but it has already proved a success and is adding income to the mart’s coffers.

Sam had no hesitation in swapping her driver’s overalls for dresses and skirts.

“I drove a skip wagon for seven years all around the Dales, but I was fed up of it,” says Sam.

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“Ronni used to drive artics and she wanted a career change. I’d been coming to Pateley Bridge Mart for a number of years as my husband is a farmer and we have a smallholding near Laverton.

“The idea of turning what was just a café on a Saturday morning for the farmers into an all-week trade was something both Ronni and I thought might work.

“She trained in a bakery and I can’t bake, but I can cook. So it was an ideal partnership. Everything we sell is made on site and we buy our meat from Ian Weatherhead, the local butcher, who buys his meat from the mart.

“So we’re selling back to the farmers what they have sold to him.”

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Farmers typically like things as they are. Sam and Ronni bore this in mind when they opened Teacups on Saturdays for them. But the two women did make one significant change to the interior which may well have gone unappreciated by their predominantly male clientele.

“We put tablecloths on. But I don’t think the farmers even realised.

“Then we started opening on a Sunday and eventually right the way through the week apart from Mondays. And after the weekend openings went well we chucked a bit of money at the place and tarted it up. We knew that our main customers were farmers and they’re always on a tight budget.

“So we decided to open on a farmers’ budget with everything having a set price. The one thing we said that we would never put up was the price of a tea or coffee from 50p.

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“We’d rather have bums on seats than no-one in. It’s working. The static caravanners found us last year and they keep coming back, and now bikers and walkers have found us too.

“So long as those who are not farmers realise that on a Saturday it’s still a farmers’ café and there is going to be the odd smelly sheepdog and plenty of wellies around everything will be all right.’

Husband and wife David and Judy Middlemiss, who farm at Ramsgill, are the fieldsman and chairman of the directors of the mart respectively.

They tell of just how near the mart came to going the same way as others at Ripon, Bridge End at Otley and Masham which fell by the wayside.

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“We were virtually closing, but we’ve had a great turnaround in the past six years,” says Judy.

“Everyone connected in any way has worked hard to build it back up and it’s now back to being a thriving mart.

“Our success has been through diversifying, as well as rejuvenating the sale days.

“We now have a car wash facility, the café Teacups and a fat cattle and fat sheep collection centre in addition to the fortnightly livestock markets and our equestrian and farm machinery sales.”

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Fortunately the past two years have seen cattle and sheep prices running at the highest they have been for the past decade.

That has not just brought back the feelgood factor amongst farmers, it has helped all marts as they take a commission on each sale.

But it’s not all plain sailing even when prices are good.

With cereal commodity prices also maintaining a decent level for arable farmers it means that livestock farmers are paying more for their cattle and sheep feed.

“The market simply couldn’t survive without us doing all that we are here,” adds Judy.

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“We’re fighting to keep our throughput numbers up and in order to do that we’re having to expand the area where stock is coming from.

“That’s because around here a lot of farms have been sold and farmers have quit.

“When that happens the farm goes forever. Usually when it’s a farm around here there is someone who comes in and keeps more horses.

“That has happened in this dale, particularly amongst the cattle men. The national figures back up this trend with cattle numbers on the slide.

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“Fortunately though, because of the work we’re doing in expanding our core area we are holding our own.”

The fortnightly livestock sales are well attended and the atmosphere around the mart is convivial.

Everyone who comes is supplied with a free cuppa from Teacups as a thank-you for their ongoing support. Somewhere near 200 cattle go through the mart each fortnight with hundreds of sheep too.

David Middlemiss has been at the helm of a scheme to develop Pateley Bridge Mart as a collection centre, increasing numbers of sheep to around 2000 a week.

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It now forms a 50/50 split with the livestock mart in terms of turnover.

The mart has also had some success attracting breed society sales and has played host to the British White Cattle Society AGM and its national breed sale.

With the kind of efforts being made by Sam and Ronni at Teacups, where they are also starting to hold functions for up to 40.

And the work shouldered by David, Judy and the rest of the team mean this small livestock market, left somewhat isolated by the closures of its fellow marts, is a bustling centre once again.

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Sam believes the success of Teacups has added to the interest in the mart from the public too.

“Since we opened, we now regularly see families bringing their children on a Saturday to show them what happens in the livestock market ring and where their meat comes from.

“We’re getting quite a lot of interest that way. People want to know and the farmers are really good with them.

“You never know, they might have even realised that there are tablecloths on our tables by now.”

Successful Mart Facts

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Pateley Bridge Auction Centre has grown its sales year-on-year since 2005.

There is ample parking on site, accommodating even the largest of transporters. All trailers delivering stock for sale are entitled to free use of the jet wash facilities for disinfection.

Pateley Bridge Livestock Market holds livestock sales fortnightly on Saturdays.

In addition to livestock, there are equestrian, machinery and antiques sales.

Teacups is open 10am-4pm every day except Monday.