MATTHEW Middleton, from Kelbrook, is the latest auctioneer to join the now five-strong team at CCM Skipton Auction Mart.

The 28 -year old  is set to further hone his skills on the rostrum after a two-year grounding stint at nearby Gisburn Auction Mart, as well as a spell with North West Auctions (NWA) at Junction 36, Crooklands.

 Matthew hails from a farming background and grew up helping his cousins, brothers William and Michael Oldfield, on their dairy and sheep farm in Newsholme. They are themselves familiar faces at Skipton.

Currently into his second year of a four-year auctioneering course at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, a specialist provider of higher education for the agricultural and rural sector, Matthew says he has always wanted to be an auctioneer – and is already settling in nicely into his new role at CCM.

A former member of both Gisburn and Bolton-by-Bowland Young Farmers Clubs, Matthew also has a hand-on interest in the livestock sector, keeping a few sheep and lambs, buying in store lambs at the back end and returning to sell them as prime hoggs at Skipton.

Welcoming Matthew to the CCM fold, general manager Jeremy Eaton said: “He has solid experience selling prime sheep and is well placed to provide a service to all of our customers, particularly those in the north-west.”