Well I’m Michael Hardy, I was born in 1943 two doors down from where we are right now in Lambley.

I can’t remember when I first went to the market, it was probably with Dad when he’d go to the market on a Saturday to meet other farmers and I’d sit on the step outside.

I was a cattle dealer, I used to buy and sell cattle. We could go to a farm sale and come back with none, we could come back with the whole lot. We went to a farm sale when Hucknall Co-op sold up and came back with eighty-nine cows… which muggins here had to milk.

We had milk in buckets, churns, and thankfully they all got sold. That was about forty years ago now.

Every day was different. There was nothing the same. Everybody helped each other, if someone was trying to load the cattle up and they were struggling you’d all go and help. You’d do battle when you was round the ring buying, but the minute that had finished you’d just become one big load of friends and go and have a cup of tea, it was a big family.