Norton & Brooksbank

Christopher Norton, Director and Co-Founder

Christopher Norton was brought up on a dairy farm in Oxfordshire, where his father, although a lawyer by profession, ran the Bellehatch herd of Friesians. After 3 years at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester (where he met Tom Brooksbank), he joined Hobsons, at that time the country’s leading firm of pedigree auctioneers. After 10 years, he and Tom Brooksbank left Hobsons to set up their own partnership under the Norton & Brooksbank banner, which has now completed 25 years of business, during which time it has officiated at the majority of the leading sales of Holsteins in the UK. Like Tom, he is a past Chairman of the British Cattle Breeders Club.

Away from the cattle breeding world, his principal interest is horse racing and for the past 25 years he has acted as a steward on many racecourses including Ascot, Cheltenham, Epsom and Newbury. He is currently Chairman of the BHA Stewarding committee, which is responsible for the appointment and training of stewards, and is a Chairman of the BHA Disciplinary Panel.

Tom Brooksbank, Director and Co-Founder

Tom Brooksbank started his career in the cattle industry in 1974 when he joined Hobsons the then leading experts in the sale and valuation of pedigree cattle in London. After 5 years he was made a Partner in that firm and in 1983 he and Christopher Norton left Hobsons to establish their own partnership under the name of Norton & Brooksbank in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. In addition to being involved in virtually all the leading sales, the sales of commercial cattle and machinery sales he has chaired the popular British Cattle Breeders Conference organising 3 days of lectures with speakers from many parts of Europe and North America, has served on the Wiltshire Holstein Breeders Club and spoken at many of the Breeders Clubs in the UK. He also gave a paper with Christopher Norton at the Semex Conference as well at the Cattle Breeders Conference in Cambridge some years ago.

Tom is one of three monitor valuers for the Welsh Assembly Government overseeing all the valuations of dairy cattle as well as carrying out hundreds of valuations himself in the course of a year.

Mark Lee

Sheila Roads

Sheila Roads was for many years a familiar figure in the British Holstein Society where one of her principal jobs was to organise the very popular and highly successful National Holstein Show. Sheila joined us in 1994 and is now our senior administrator in charge of producing the majority of the catalogues and also for sale day procedures including the accounts, passports etc. She is well known to many of our clients and Holstein breeders throughout the UK and her considerable experience is a great asset to the firm.

Carole Burdett

Carole Burdett had a career in computers and IT before joining Norton & Brooksbank in 1996. Carole is the secretary to the business and is also a fully trained book keeper and does the company’s accounts.