2019 £m	2018 £m
At start of the period	0.4	0.7
Recycled to retained earnings	(0.4)	(0.3)
Purchase of own shares	–	–
At end of period	–	0.4

The own shares reserve represents the cost of shares in Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC purchased in the market and held by the Group's Employee Benefit Trust to satisfy options under the Group's share options schemes (see note 28 for details). There were no ordinary shares held by the Employee Benefit Trust at 30 June 2019 (2018: 21,033).