Their optimism seemed hard to recapture now. Local records tell of how, in the 18th century, a bell would ring in Bideford market at 1pm, calling the local people to buy wheat. Traders were not allowed to buy until after 2pm, to prevent dealers overcharging the poor. The New Market, which opened in September 1960, sold 2,317 animals on its first day - dairy cows, calves, sheep and pigs. According to a correspondent in Devon Life, Bideford livestock market has weathered several outbreaks of foot and mouth disease.
Many farmers now run their farms at subsistence level.
Stapleton Farm is not far from Bideford, nearer Great Torrington, and there isn't a cow to be seen. No livestock, no fields, no manure, no tractors, just a small manufacturing unit that couldn't be doing better. This is the enterprise Sainsbury's put me on to when I asked about the partnerships with farming that mattered to them. This is the new thing. I found Carol Duncan in a Portakabin she uses as an office.