Newtown mart ownersappoint Borders farmer

Mr Hamilton lives at Bee Edge Farm, Coldingham.

H&H Group is a holding company for the UK’s largest livestock trading firm, Harrison & Hetherington, which operates nine auction marts, including Newtown and Wooler.

Mr Hamilton farms, with his wife, Carol, and father as W. B. Hamilton & Sons. Together they work 2,000 acres based at Bee Edge.

He is the third generation of Hamiltons to use the Newtown auction mart, which he first attended as a young child. Will has been using the mart to sell cattle since the early 1980s, and he also sold finished ewe lambs through both Wooler and Newtown marts when he ran a breeding sheep enterprise.

Demonstrating his commitment to the mart system, Will finishes 350 head of store cattle which he purchases at a number of Harrison and Hetherington’s auction marts, including Carlisle and Wooler. He aims to sell most of these cattle at Newtown, weekly throughout the year, to supply local butchers.

A highly-respected farmer and businessman, Will is also currently UK chairman of the AHDB Wheat Recommended List Committee, and in taking his place on the board as non-executive director with H&H Group, he said: “H&H Group are a very well-respected organisation and I am honoured to be invited to join the board.

“I am understandably excited about the proposed investment and development in the livestock auction mart facilities at Newtown St Boswells as this demonstrates Harrison and Hetherington’s commitment to livestock farmers in the Borders for the future.

“I intend to support our livestock trading teams, to make more farmers aware of the extensive range of services which we offer, and to ensure that Wooler and St Boswells continue to be vibrant livestock trading centres.”

The H&H Group operates as a holding company with its seven operating firms, encompassing livestock, machinery and auctioneers, brokers and valuers, estate agents, auction rooms, commercial printers in addition to chartered surveyors and insurance brokers.

Founded originally as farmstock auctioneers and today with nine Harrison & Hetherington auction marts, auctioneering is still very much a part of their business.

Michael Scott, chairman of H&H Group, said: “Looking ahead, these are exciting times for the group and in his role as a director, I know that Will will be integral to the continued growth and structured development of both Newtown St Boswells and Wooler auction marts.

“Building on their reputation and supporting the existing team, he will help realise the company’s continued growth, and his own ambition, of seeing a new market facility developed at Newtown St Boswells.”