5. Remembering the Market

Ken has vivid memories of what the Market used to be like:

“They had cows in the market in those days! Yeah you used to get cattle along the streets……..they used to bring the cows down in the morning from Milford goods yard, was a train station, well goods’ place. They used to unload the cows up there and bring ’em down Rampart Road and down Milford Street and ‘course one or two used to escape along Guilder Lane. You often hear ‘Oh there’s a cow comin!’ Aaargh! ‘Push him back ‘ere!’ I used to go down the market and see all the cows and the sheep and the pigs. You had all the pens. That was always a Tuesday that you had all the farmers come in’ cos in those days they used to keep the pubs open ’til four o’clock. I wonder where the market was on a Tuesday? I think it just sort of round the edges and more in the Poultry Cross ‘cos you had yer Saturday market which is what we know today.

Then you had all your auctioneers you see in the back of Brown Street. You had Knapman’s where the George Mall is now. That used to be interesting to go in there on a Tuesday …. people used to bring their chickens in and their eggs in and vegetables in, flowers in. You could buy anything. You bid for it. There was Woolley and Wallis’s in Castle Street and they had cattle at the back of there, so we had a lot of cattle around the town. I can’t remember when the cattle market moved up to where Waitrose is now. Oh it was better for all their lorries now, out of town, they can come straight in. But, from a business point of view it has affected the town. You don’t get what I call the country folk in now”.

Read some other peoples’ recollections of Market Day here.