PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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The first grant of a market in Plymouth was made in the year 1253, in the time of King Henry III, when it was to be held on Thursdays and accompanied by a 3-day fair at the festival of John the Baptist. The market rights belonged to the Priors of Plympton. In 1257 Baldwin of the Isle, otherwise known as Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon and Lord of the Manor of Plympton, was granted a market on Wednesdays, with another 3-day fair, this time at the festival of the Ascension. The rights again belonged to the Plympton Priory and it is suggested that this was the same market as mentioned above. After all, it is unlikely that there was a need to have markets on two consecutive days. Then in 1311 Matthew, the Prior of Plympton, granted the Town's burgesses 18 market stalls adjoining a stone cross at a rent of one penny per stall per year. The stone cross was presumably the Market Cross that was removed from the bottom of Holy Cross Lane circa 1610 after a Shambles had been erected in connection with the 1606 Guildhall. There was a Corn Market House but it barely lasted 20 years before, in 1625, a new market was built. This one had an even shorter life as it was taken down the following year and to be rebuilt above the Town's higher mill. A yarn market was built in the Old Town area in 1653 at a cost of only £6 14s 6d but this was later held in the Churchyard of St Andrew's. The Shambles was removed in 1656 to the middle of Old Town Street. It was described as a long, narrow range of buildings, some 200 feet long by 12 feet wide. The Leather Hall extended for about a third of the length on the upper floor. The building cost £177 10s 9d. Later the market was removed to the area underneath the Guildhall, which stood on granite pillars. The butter and poultry market was held there. Market Street led from it into Bull Hill and on either side of the road were pork butchers' stalls. By the Churchyard wall there was the fish market. An enclosed courtyard behind the Guildhall accommodated the corn and vegetable markets. One can only wonder at the state of the streets around the market on market days. When the new Guildhall was being erected in 1800 there was a lack of provision for a shambles and so it was decided to erect a separate market. The site was officially known as Saunder's Field but was unofficially called Bloody Field after a boy had drowned in a pond there. It was owned by a Mr Peter Ilbert and was purchased from him for £4,000. A tontine loan of £10,000 was raised for building the market and the foundation stone was laid in 1804. The Market was opened on September 29th 1807 by the Mayor, Thomas Lockyer, and the Mayor-Elect, Thomas Eales. In 1836 the lessee of the Market was a Mr Thomas Ham of Park Street, Plymouth, but when his annual lease ran out on Lady Day 1840, the property devolved back to the Corporation. They promptly reduced the period of tenancy from annually to monthly and made it terminable by 28 days' notice. Various improvements followed at a cost of less than £1,500. A Corn Chamber was erected by constructing a roof over the fish stalls north of the Poultry Market, and the fish stalls were changed to ones selling fruit, flowers, baskets and garden produce. A new Fish Market was opened. A new Cattle Market was also opened, presumably the one in Pound Street, as it involved the removal of carts from the centre of the market place, where they unprofitably occupied valuable ground. In addition, four cook's shops were erected in the north-east corner of the market place and a new Weighing House was built, accessible from all sides. Plans were invited in 1853 for the rebuilding of the market and the first contract was awarded to a Mr C Eales of London. In 1882 other plans were obtained from a Mr C King and a Mr H Alty, the main result of which was the construction of Market Avenue in 1891. The Avenue was formally "opened" as a public highway by the Mayor, Mr J T Bond, with the members and friends of the Corporation, driving through the Market on the way to open the reconstructed Drake's Place Reservoir on Wednesday July 22nd 1891. The Mayor used to be the Clerk of the Market and had the revenue from the Shambles to help put food in his kitchen. He carried out regular inspections. On a visit to the butter market on Saturday May 7th 1853, 'for the purpose of testing the weight of the apparent pounds and half-pounds of butter exposed for sale', he and his assistants confiscated 50lbs of butter from one merchant alone. It was reported in 1893 that the Meat Market had the capacity for hanging 88 carcasses of beef or 430 carcasses of sheep but although it covered an area of 2,515 square feet it was inadequate for meeting the existing requirements. The Superintendent of the Market was also the Keeper of the City Pound and the Caretaker of the Corn Exchange. This post was held for ten years by Mr William Henry Abrams of 12 Ashery Drive, Hooe, Plymstock. After the damage inflicted by the Blitz in 1941, the major retailers like Woolworth's and Mark's & Spencer's were given stalls in the main pannier market building, while the smaller ex-market traders opened stalls in the adjoining Drake Street in October 1941. This gave rise to "Tin Pan Alley", a line of corrugated iron temporary stalls. Messrs F W Woolworth re-opened for business in the market hall on Friday October 10th 1941.
Above: the back of the Market
circa late 1940s,
It was very busy in the old
Market in the 1940s, Work on demolishing "Tin Pan Alley" started on February 11th 1952. The Wholesale Meat Market, along with the Corn Exchange, closed early in 1952 and was being demolished in April of that year. The Market itself closed on September 5th 1959. In the meantime, work on a new Market, the present building at Market Avenue, had started in October 1952 and it opened on Monday September 7th 1959. It reportedly cost £269,548. There were also market buildings at Devonport and Stonehouse plus the Fish Market on the Barbican.
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