Our Story

The Watson family are local farmers and the original founders/owners of St John's Chapel Auction Mart. During the 1930's Son Tony left the farm and went into the garage trade. Then in the late 1950's, his nephew JD, Marks grandfather, also left his father's farm and established his own garage and agricultural tyre business.

Mark Watson started in business whilst still at school in the 1980's, going to auctions with his grandfather and buying small items. During the 1990's Mark operated a petrol station and workshop in Walsingham, at the opposite end of the village from JD's workshops. We still own this site today, but it is now leased to a family member.

In the 2000's we concentrated on agricultural sales at Blackfield Farm. Mark ran the business single handedly for a long time until we diversified into haulage. We currently run a fleet of specialist farm machinery transporters as well as supplying new and used farm machinery. We are agents for Malone, Cross and Fleming Machinery, covering County Durham and Northumberland.

Marks daughter Emily joined the business in 2021 after studying agriculture at Newcastle University. We carry large stocks of both new and used machinery available to view at the Farm. Our lorries operate nationwide, so if you buy or sell a tractor or machine anywhere in the Country, we will be able to move it for you promptly and safely.

If there is anything we can assist you with, please feel free to call Mark any time, his phone is always on.