Mule sales with plenty of kick bring a welcome boost to rural business

Think of a rural holiday destination right now where every room is taken and it would be unlikely that the Wensleydale market town of Hawes would spring to mind.

But that was exactly the situation earlier this week and will again be the case in a fortnight's time. The reason isn't down to an expensive marketing strategy aimed at attracting more tourists to what has become a honey-pot destination. It's down to agriculture – the reason for Hawes's existence in the first place.

Hawes Farmers Auction Market hosts the largest two-day sale of sheep in the British Isles every mid-September. It's the NEMSA (North of England Mule Sheep Association) gimmer lamb ewe sale, which is a crossbred sheep that has become popular in the past 40 years. A gimmer is a

lamb that is normally between one and two years old. The popularity of the sale is down to purchasing the right kind of ewe that will produce quality lambs in the future and flock selection is all-important.

This week over 29,000 Mule sheep were sold through the market and some 250 buyers flocked to the town from throughout the UK to buy what they consider to be the best stock in the country.

Andrew Pratt is the chairman of the auction market company and understands the benefits the sale brings for the town as well as the local producers of Mule sheep.

"It's huge for Hawes at this time of the year. It extends the tourist season tremendously.

"We've been trying to find accommodation for people who were coming to buy here today. They wanted to stay three nights and it's virtually impossible in the town.

"Everywhere is chock-a-block full and it's farmers that are filling the place up.

"It's important to everybody in the town, not just to us here. Our normal market day is Tuesday and when it is market day here it is also market day in the town and that brings families. It is a tourist attraction as well, because people are interested in seeing a real livestock market out in the country.

"We get any number of people ringing us up wanting to know when the sale starts and when we ask whether they have something to sell, invariably they just tell us they fancy coming to have a look. We are always happy

to see them. For the farmers who have brought their stock today, this is their harvest and for some of them their one big pay day of the year. It's what they work from year to year for. You haven't a lot of options in what you can produce in the hills."

Raymond Lund is the auctioneer at Hawes and has seen just how much the Mule sales have grown and the impact of the two days.

"The Mule sheep do really well for the south country man, they are very good milkers and good mothers that produce what the market wants. That's why we get buyers from every county in England. We also sell to a lot of farmers in Scotland and there's a man here from as far as Thurso today as well as some from Cornwall."

Ann and Jeff Huntbach run the Bull's Head Hotel in the centre of Hawes providing bed and breakfast accommodation with six rooms. They gave up farming on the Staffordshire/ Shropshire border to come here 11 years ago, and in common with the rest had no vacancies this week.

"All of our six rooms have been taken by sheep buyers," says Ann. "We get all sorts of people staying here, from those who are walking the Pennine Way, cyclists, motorbikers and people who are just enjoying the countryside and the scenery.

"We had beef cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry where we were before but we sold up lock, stock and barrel because we had suffered badly through BSE, wanted a change of life and we just love Hawes.

"Agriculture tends to play a bigger part of our business in the quieter months because there are a lot of things going on revolving around the sheep side of things. Societies host their annual gatherings, there are annual dinners and important meetings, plus there are family parties either for birthdays, anniversaries or weddings and those who have travelled need somewhere to stay."

"Most people are attracted because of its rural setting and it's the kind of place that hasn't lost its real old characters," says Jeff who is presently busy restoring his Model T Ford, fitting in well with Hawes's image as a Herriot-age town.

Grace Pounder works at the Penny Garth Caf situated at the top end of town and a favourite of motorbikers and tourists throughout the summer. She is less impressed by what Hawes has to offer.

"It's a lovely place but once you've said goodbye to the summer there's nothing – not for people my age anyway. Most of what is in Hawes is about tourists. You can't buy a property. Unless you're a millionaire you can't afford to live here. At the moment, I live in my gran's flat, which she owns, but when I have to move out I don't know what I'm going to do. Here at the caf we try to make the best out of the summer. By the end of October there's not a lot going on. It's a very long winter in Hawes."

The Mule sheep sales may not be the be-all and end-all to everyone in Hawes but their value to the sheep men of Wensleydale and Swaledale is without question. Local farmers Tony and Alan Busby of Marrick, near Richmond, sold their champion pen of Mule gimmers for 560 each to a farmer from Derbyshire.

The value of the sales to the likes of Ann and Jeff Huntbach at The Bull's Head and the rest of the town's hoteliers, pubs and B&B establishments is the kind of boost that would make many other tourist centres look on with envy at this time of year.

In a fortnight's time Hawes will be full again when the Blue Faced Leicester ram sale takes place – September 30 – with 800 rams on sale. It is this breed of ram crossed with the Swaledale ewe that brings about the Mule sheep. For the town this is one Mule that gives them the right kind of kick.

CW 18/9/10