Leading firm appoints experienced farmer

Will Hamilton, of Bee Edge Farm, Coldingham, has taken on the role at H&H Group Plc, which operates nine auction marts, including Wooler.

He said: “H&H Group is a very well-respected organisation and I am honoured to be invited to join the board.

“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 continues to be a vibrant livestock trading centre.”

Michael Scott, chairman of the H&H Group Plc, said: “These are exciting times and I know that Will will be integral to the continued growth and structured development of Wooler Auction Mart.”

Will farms with his father and wife Carol as WB Hamilton & Sons. Together they farm 2,000 acres based at Bee Edge Farm.

He is the third generation of Hamilton’s to use the Newtown St Boswells Auction Mart, in the Scottish Borders, 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 lambs through Wooler and St Boswells marts when he had 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 H&H auction marts, including at Wooler.

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