Yorkshire livestock markets largely lost over time

However, the coming of the railways and the need to feed growing urban populations led to the development of specialised livestock markets, with sales being by auction rather than buyers and sellers arranging their own private sales.

In 1963 there were 677 livestock markets in England and Wales, but today there are only around 80 remaining

John Bentley’s new book, ‘A Day at the Market, focuses on nine different livestock markets that he photographed between 1976 and 1990.

He said: “I started photographing livestock markets in the late 1970s. Most were somewhat dilapidated brick and tin sheds where cattle, sheep and pigs were being auctioned.

“My aim was to get photographs of ‘characters’, of which there were many. This was really the end of the era where farmers dressed in characteristic long coats and cloth caps and buying agents dressed in smart waistcoats and trilby hats or bowlers.

“While many of the old markets were little more than tin sheds, they had extraordinary character and offered beautiful light for photography.

He said: “All these original markets are now gone, apart from Malton, while Skipton and Bakewell have now moved, from the old sites I photographed, to new out-of-town locations.

“Besides Malton, other Yorkshire markets featured are Driffield, Beverley, Skipton and Penistone, which are now long-gone of course, although Skipton has been re-located to a new site.

“The book captures these lost markets, along with observing aspects such as the dress of market-goers and auctioneers and the vehicles of these times gone by. ”

The book has a Foreword by renowned photographer Paul Hill MBE, who said: “John’s photographs are not just visual records of quaint rustics and bygone practices, they ‘say’ something about the rural economy then and the people who drove it for centuries. But from a photographic perspective they are an object lesson in how to use the medium to tell stories in single images as well as in sequences. The framing is exemplary, and the caught ‘frozen’ moments are so telling they could almost have been deliberately choreographed by John. The work demonstrates that the best social documentation is lyrical and aesthetically engaging as well as informational. This book is small but perfectly formed. I come from a rural background and have many relatives who have earned their livings from the land for well over a hundred years in Shropshire. Rarely have I come across a more revealing and historically important archive of this rapidly changing aspect of British working life and commerce”.

A Day At The Market by John Bentley is published by Fistful of Books.

For more information go to https://fistfulofbooks.com/product/a-day-at-the-market-john-bentley/