Respected husband-and-wife team, David and Heather Pritchard have been honoured with the prestigious Blamire Medal for services to agriculture in the old county of Cumberland.

The couple, from Scaleby, near Carlisle, who between them have worked a total of 97 years within the agricultural industry, were awarded the monogrammed coin, at a special ceremony at the North West Auctions premises, near Kendal, by chairman of the memorial trust, Michael Cowen.

The Blamire Memorial Trust was formed 160 years ago in February 1862 in remembrance of William Blamire, who was a Cumberland yeoman, member of Parliament, enclosure commissioner and all round supporter of farming in the county. Each year the trustees consider nominations as potential recipients of the award.

Heather, was brought up on a dairy farm near Gretna and from school joined H&H as an office junior, thereafter holding a number of positions over the years, with her final position pedigree sales and marketing manager for the H&H Farmstock Company. A couple of Heather’s greatest achievements were the development of the highly successful Pedigree Sales division and being instrumental in creating the two highly successful events known as Dairy Expo and Agri Expo.

On leaving H&H Heather moved to the team at Pedigree Livestock Services looking after the administration of numerous pedigree breed societies. She is highly sought after as a livestock commentator at local and county shows and was recently elected as president of the Border & Lakeland Holstein Club.

David, from a Herefordshire farming family, joined agricultural auctioneers Straker Chadwick and Sons of Abergavenny as a trainee. But in 1976 following a YFC visit to Cumbria, David was offered a job working at Lockerbie Market, subsequently moving to Borderway Mart in Carlisle, and rising through the ranks to become Farmstock joint managing director. On leaving the company David took up the post of managing director of North West Auctions at J36 Rural Auction Centre. David has been a council member, chair and president of the Scottish Institute of Auctioneers & Appraisers.

The couple said: “We are absolutely honoured and privileged to receive the Blamire Medal. We are overwhelmed, humble and proud to be recognised for our services to the agricultural community and especially the farmers across the County and the UK at large.”