I am the daughter of the late Mrs Peggy Peatt who died in 1997. She became known to countless thousands of county people in a lifetime in Hereford Market, where she started work at the age of eight and rose to be the only woman on the board of Hereford Market Auctioneers. It was by joining her father’s company, E. Hammond & Son, during the First World War that my mother began her long association with Hereford Market. Her first job was to run slips from the rostrum to the office in the Market Tavern but, over the years, she came to know every aspect of the business as her father’s firm combined with F. H. Sunderland & Co, subsequently joining forces with Russell, Baldwin & Bright to form Hereford Market Auctioneers.
Her father was A.E.P. Hammond of Leominster whose father Edward Hammond started the business in Leominster.
Incidentally I went to Hereford Market with my mother or my grandfather & grandmother, who also worked in the market on Wednesdays, and loved the smells, the noise of the animals and meeting many farmers from all over the county. Those Wednesdays hold very happy memories.
Moya Jackson
My mother’s obituary in The Hereford Times, dated October 2, 1997.
Peggy Peatt
What an interesting story to hear, not least because it is about the grandmother of a dear friend of mine – and is something I hadn’t known about my friend’s family – but also because women’s role at the market is fascinating.