THE Archbishop of York has met farmers at Thirsk auction mart to discuss the issues affecting the rural community.

Dr John Sentamu headed to the Thirsk Rural Business Centre to see it in action and to discuss the problems in the farming world.

The archbishop was asked to visit the mart by Bob Baker the rural officer for the Churches Regional Commission at its farmers’ health day.

His visit on Thursday, June 25, was Dr Sentamu’s second to the mart as he was at its carol service in December.

Mr Baker said: "We were wondering who to have as a guest speaker at the farmers’ health day and someone suggested Dr Sentamu.

"He wanted to see the auction in action and he did that last week and it was great. It went really well."

Dr Sentamu joined Mr Baker and Harry Woodhead, the mart’s chairman, in the auction ring at one point to talk to the farmers.

The Churches Regional Commission is funded by Lantra, the agricultural skills council, and it has run health days since 2003.

This year’s session was aided by Anne Reed a nurse practitioner and her team from Thirsk Health Centre.

The team offered many health checks to those attending the mart, these included blood pressure checks and blood sugar checks amongst others.