Market economies
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have to hang around this :et much longer, I shall turn tarian," I told photographer Wright, amid the soon to be hiered sheep at the livestock tet at Haywards Heath, SusTheir ear lobes were being cl for tagging before auction, their faces were freckled blood.
heep don't feel pain when is done because their ears ;0 thin," it is said; it seemed I that might be true. ?.rtheless, they were agid, the temperature had hed the eighties and they their fleece on. Country iers were busy estimating worth at so much a kilo. its of "Rejection!" meant, I ve, that certain lucky — unzed — animals would reto pasture.
there room for sentiment in tock haulage? "We save for our pets," drivers told 'Although," said one, "I do in electric prodder — kinder a stick when making ani
load or unload. Some ers have a dog to help 1, but that can cause cattle to is week we are looking at age to fruit and vegetable a 22), fish (page 28) and livemarkets.
ulage has been under re cessional pressure for a long time now. But while more than 10 per cent of the population is unemployed, nearly 90 per cent are in jobs, and proportionally more income is spent on food as the years go by. Steel and general haulage, I suppose, have been hardest hit.
In the South West particularly, one hears complaints of hordes of West Midlands operators competing with the specialist operators for loads from the depleted hauls available in the 1980s from our fishing ports. Comments that the Midlanders, too, need to make a living, are not necessarily well received. Livestock hauliers, happily (happily for them) are not under similar pressure.
They have their own beefs. It's the farmers; are they not providing an amount of unfair (illegal) competition? This concerns the familar allegation that F-licences are sometimes used to carry neighbours' stock.
Added to this, many farmers use a Land Rover plus trailer to bring stock to market. When I looked around and could see more of these at that moment at Haywards Heath, I was told that they come earlier in the morning (before I realised the market was open). Are some overloaded? Shall we say that it is not unusual to meet lorry drivers who believe that some are?
There are not so many small, local markets as there used to be. What is to blame? Motorised road transport. What is the result? More efficiency. The proof? The market economy.
In Sussex. not so long ago there were nearby competing markets at East Grinstead, Battle, Horsham, Pulborough and Steyning. Go back to the time of the First World War and there were additional ones at Uckfield, Polegate, Chailey and Pevensey.
The Haywards Heath market dates from 1255, when Henry III granted the Earl of Warrenne a charter for a Tuesday weekly market at his manor in Cuckfield, and this grant was renewed over the centuries. This cattle market was established in Haywards Heath in 1367 by Thomas Bannister, founder of T. Bannister and Co, which still conducts the market (there is also a small sale of timber, nursery stocks and household furniture, and some sales on some other days: for instance, store cattle on most Mondays and antiques once a month).
Haywards Heath attracts trade from East and West Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Kent; buyers are attracted from the North, notably Rugby and Derbyshire, and sometimes from the Continent.
The market is just across the road from the town's railway station, but the last one-off load on the railways was carried around 16 years ago; they have not run on a regular basis for the past 20 years.
I thought that an historical market like this would be next to an old Sussex pub; oak beams, horse brasses and sepia prints of smock-wearing yokels from around the time of the Boer War and before. Not a bit of it. It has a (dry) canteen; excellent salads are served, plus such goodies at this time of year as strawberries and ice cream. However, it is something of a closed world.
Old friends use the canteen as a meeting place. The hum of conversation is formidable. I nevertheless tried to get an approximation of rates charged — not taking the quotes too literally. I was told: "Local jobs cannot be done by mileage." Estimates given me were: 50p per loaded mile for a four-wheeler, 65p for a six-wheeler and perhaps 75p for an articulated vehicle (no one seemed to be running an artic). Alan Cattermole, managing director of the market company, showed me a catalogue dated 1890, for fat and store stock, harness, poultry, etc (Warner's patent annular sail wind engine, whatever that is, was advertised, too — sail diameter was 12ft).
Alan said that the last time a vehicle census was taken at this time of year on a Tuesday, 122 lorries, 194 cars and 63 other vehicles were recorded. The turnover last year was £16 million (120,000 animals). And a bar is being added to the canteen; Horsham ales, one hopes.
Moving on down the market, I met Paul Appleby, who trades as Harris Brothers, from Herstmonceux; he drives himself and has two six-wheelers and four four I could not reasonably expect him necessarily to reveal too much about his financial position ("rates are low") but I gathered that he has to consider whether to put what profit he makes into new lorries or the two garages his company also owns. Around four years ago, he had seven to eight lorries. He is one of those suffering from Land Rover plus trailer competition from farmers. He wonders whether, if the farmers fully costed their operation like a haulier, they could justify running to market. In most cases, he reckons, not.
Paul specialises in short runs (which means he is a candidate for a second-hand lorry purchase, next time, although five of his present fleet were bought new). On a Tuesday he usually has three lorries at Haywards Heath, but on that day he had three at the Royal Show at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. He had made six pick-ups around Hailsham, starting at 8am, totalling eight cows and three bullocks. His vehicle could have carried 14 or 15 animals.
He usually also gets a load from market — perhaps to a slaughter house, and charges a rate per head. He likes the Haywards Heath market: decently, unlike some, no charge is made for using the wash (washing between loads is a legal requirement) which has been enlarged; only in the autumn do vehicles queue to unload; and access is good. Sometimes one vehicle returns to take a second load out of the market. Other markets where he is a fam figure are Hailsham, Lewes, ford, Maidstone (store sales) Heathfield. "This place has proved," he said.
Paul is a member of the F Haulage Association's lives functional group and I asked about the general feeling am his colleagues. He replied the biggest moans concei vehicle tax. "Farmers pay al £100 a vehicle, hauliers £1,l ... The fairest system woul, just to tax fuel."
He believes that within arc a couple of years, when the Conservative Government priorities sorted out, that u competition from overloa will in its turn be sorted out. his livestock haulier colleag he said, he does not have w( problems — only with two d of hogs or three of ewes ma get near the legal maximum I also met Geoff Simmc yard superintendent. He ft word of criticism. "The mo drivers don't help each other the old ones did," he said. fuel and operating costs so today," I opined, "I dc suppose they can afford to around unnecessarily."
"That's as may be," rej Geoff. "But if they helped other load like they used to, • they'd save time. It's like ev thing else today ..." I den Geoff's right.
In contradistinction to ti small markets I have mentio is the large new livestock CE at Truro, Cornwall. On a market day, when I saw looked an impressive er lishment — it cost 000,000. what do those who use it th In order to find out, our We England correspondent v along. He writes: