The Old Livestock Market

This entertaining and warm-hearted film, produced by Hereford-based Catcher Media working with a group of talented trainees from across the county, portrays the showmanship and characters that gave the old hereford livestock market its vibrancy and unique heritage.

There are anecdotes galore about traders juggling china, livestock drovers driving their flocks through the city, visits by The Queen, children playing in the market after hours, the happy crowds arriving for Miners Fortnight, and stubborn pigs, to name just a few.

In interviews with farmers, auctioneers, townspeople, breeders, traders, and council workers, the film revisits the past, but with an eye to the future, and is complemented with newly-found 16mm film footage and beautiful archive photographs.

“For hundreds of years, Hereford life has revolved around its market. It was the reason why people travelled here, not just from the villages and towns around the county, but from across the Welsh and Worcestershire borders too. Traditionally, on market day farmers and their wives would come into the city to buy and sell their animals and produce.” – Wye Valley Life