THE British Wool Marketing Board has opened a new intermediate wool collecting depot near Richmond.

The Bainbridge Brothers have agreed to run it on their farm at Marrick Abbey. They have been one of the Board's North of England Wools (NOEWs) hauliers for 16 years.

The new depot means producers can deliver their wool there where it will be compacted and delivered to the NOEW grading depot in Bradford at no extra cost to the producer.

Ernest, Syd and Andrew Bainbridge are sheep farmers in their own right, and have farmed at Marrick Abbey for three generations. They are strong believers in the importance of good quality wool, and have been successful in showing their own sheep over the years.

Chris Rowan, depot manager at NOEWs said: "As a depot we handle approximately 5.6 million kilos of wool from over 9,000 producers covering the areas from the Scottish borders down to Derbyshire. It is therefore essential we continue to provide our producers with a high level of service and the ID structure is an effective and efficient way of achieving this.

"Working with Ernest, we identified Richmond and North Yorkshire as an area where producers would benefit from the establishment of a new ID.

"Along with our other ID’s located in Ashbourne, Buxton, Carlisle and Chipping producers can be assured of a high level of service getting their wool off farm ready to be graded, packed and tested before the wool is sold at one of the BWMB auctions."

Gareth Jones, BWMB producer communications manager, said: "The benefit of the ID structure is that it provides producers with an important service locally to deliver their wool – there is also the added benefit of no additional charge for producers who deliver their wool to their authorised Grading Depot or ID.

"The BWMB and our depots across the UK are committed to ensuring a high level of service to all producers and maximising the value of their wool."

Producers wishing to make arrangements to deliver their wool on specific loading days, or who require any further information, can contact Ernest Bainbridge on 07772 623119 or Syd Bainbridge on 07815 541732.