MARKET AND FAIRS.
There was a market in
Warminster in the time of Thomas Mauduit, lord
of the manor c. 1204-44. (fn. 37) In the middle of the
13th century the toll of it belonged to his son
William Mauduit, (fn. 38) and stalls and shops in it were
the subject of conveyances before 1300. (fn. 39) The toll
of the market and fair of St. Laurence was said
to be worth only 15s. a year in 1300, (fn. 40) but was
valued at 100s. in 1327. (fn. 41) In 1322 the toll of the
market for about six weeks was 32s. (fn. 42) In 1348-9,
perhaps a bad year, the markets and fairs together
produced almost £8. In 1379-80 the market alone
produced over £18 and fines paid for stalls another
£4, and in 1385-6 the profits of the market were
almost £20. In the 15th century profits were
accounted for in 'home' and 'foreign' boxes;
perhaps traders from the town paid at a different
rate from those from outside. Together they
amounted to between £8 and £10 in 1443-4,
1454-5 and 1455-6, but were under £6 in 1462-3. (fn. 43)
From the 16th century the tolls of the market
and the profits of the stalls and shambles in the
Market Place were let with the bailiwick of the
town. (fn. 44) In 1711, however, the tolls alone were let
at rack for £100 a year, reduced to £82 in 1737.
The other profits of the bailiwick were added to
this lease in 1758, (fn. 45) and let at rack until 1802.
When the market rights were in hand between
1802 and 1805 the profits amounted to over £100
a year, of which the largest part was toll on corn,
and the remainder profits of stalls and pig pens. (fn. 46)
The whole was re-let at rack rent in 1806, and
remained so until 1856 when the toll of corn was
taken into hand on the building of the new corn
market. (fn. 47) This toll was still in hand and collected
in kind in the late 19th century, and the rest of the
market profits were let at £25 a year. (fn. 48) In 1904 the
Urban District Council became lessee of the whole
of the tolls and in 1920 purchased them of the
Marquess of Bath for £1,600. (fn. 49)
Tolls of corn and other produce sold in front of a
certain house in the Market Place had in 1801 been
taken from time immemorial by the lessee of the
house, which was held on a 1,000-year lease. In
that year they were given up to the Marquess of
Bath in return for the reversion of another house. (fn. 50)
It is possible that the right of taking them originated
in a mid-13th century grant of a house in Warminster quit of tolls at markets and fairs. (fn. 51)
The market was held on Saturday in the 17th
century, (fn. 52) and that continued to be the day of the
corn market as long as it was held. Although
cattle were sold at the Saturday market in 1887,
a separate monthly cattle market was held by 1903,
and Monday has been the cattle market day since
then; sales have been sometimes weekly and
sometimes less often. (fn. 53)
In the 16th century Leland mentioned Warminster as a great corn market. (fn. 54) Its fame was
probably well-established by his time, for there
can be little doubt that the large tolls collected in
the 14th and 15th centuries came from the sale of
corn. (fn. 55) In the late 16th century the quantity brought
to the market was 'scarce credible', (fn. 56) and in
Aubrey's time it was held to be much the greatest
corn market in the west of England. He was told
that 12 or 14 score loads were brought there on
market days, but that it had declined somewhat,
owing, it was said, to the growth of the market at
Bristol, where farmers from Gloucestershire took
samples in bags. (fn. 57) In contrast, Warminster remained a 'pitched' market, in which one sack
from every load was pitched in the street, a practice which still prevailed in the 19th century. (fn. 58) In
spite of the loss of the Bristol trade, however, the
market still flourished, and was noted by Celia
Fiennes in the late 17th century, (fn. 59) and by Richard
Pococke in 1754. (fn. 60) About 60 maltsters attended
to buy barley in 1757, (fn. 61) and in 1798 the corn
market was said to be the largest at an inland town
in England. (fn. 62) In 1805 the toll amounted to 478
bushels, mainly wheat and barley; if, as seems
likely, the rate was the same as in Daniell's day,
2 quarts out of each sack pitched, over 7,500 sacks
were pitched in a year, which gives an average of
over 150 loads brought to market each week
throughout the year. (fn. 63) Warminster was the only
market in the county from which weekly returns
of sales of corn had to be made under the Importation of Corn Act of 1828. (fn. 64) Between that year and
1835 the quantities sold varied between 58,000
and 76,500 quarters a year; the largest turnover
in money was £184,000 in 1831. (fn. 65) In the 1830's
Warminster was second only to Bristol among
corn markets in the west of England, and was
particularly notable for the quantities of barley
sold. (fn. 66) From 1829 to 1841 between 25,000
and 30,000 quarters of wheat were generally sold
yearly, and the figures for barley would certainly
be rather higher. (fn. 67) Even in 1831, however, trade
was beginning to decline because of the lack of a
canal to the town, and it was thought that Devizes
market promised to rival Warminster within a
few years. (fn. 68) Sales of corn at the two towns bear out
the accuracy of this forecast, (fn. 69) but in the next
decade Warminster market increased again and
'far exceeded' other markets in the county; this
was said to be due to the coming of the railway. (fn. 70)
In spite of this the inhabitants of the town and
those frequenting the market complained in 1854
to the Marquess of Bath that railways made or
projected would put Warminster into competition
with Devizes, Melksham, Chippenham, and Salisbury, and that they all had excellent market
houses. (fn. 71) The building of the Market House in
1855 (fn. 72) helped the market in its recovery, and in the
early 1860's the quantities sold at Warminster were
no smaller than they had been 30 years before, (fn. 73)
and the average turnover was still £10,000 a week. (fn. 74)
About this time Scott and Smith, the largest cornfactors in the town, built new corn stores near the
station. (fn. 75) In 1871, however, the railway was blamed
for diverting traffic from the market, and many
sack carriers and others had left the town. (fn. 76) Weekly
sales often fell to only a few quarters, (fn. 77) and in
1894 the corn market was almost dead. (fn. 78) It finally
ceased to be held after the council had taken over
the tolls. (fn. 79)
Besides corn, the market was used for the supply
of the town with butcher's meat and vegetables.
In Cobbett's time the town was well-known for
fine meat. (fn. 80) Pigs were sold in the early 19th
century (fn. 81) but in the 1850's, although cattle were
sold occasionally, attempts to hold regular cheese,
wool, cattle, and poultry markets failed. (fn. 82) By 1887
regular livestock markets were held on Saturdays. (fn. 83)
By the turn of the century they were replaced or
supplemented by monthly sales of cattle held on
Mondays, and Monday has been Warminster's
regular market day, either weekly or fortnightly,
since the Saturday corn market ended. After a busy
period between the World Wars the sales of cattle
declined again, and in 1962 the frequency of the
market had again to be reduced to once a fortnight. (fn. 84)
Until the 19th century Warminster market was
held in the open Market Place; the arcades which
several of the inns had for the protection of dealers
have been mentioned above. (fn. 85) The only other
facilities were the stalls which since the late Middle
Ages had clustered around and under the Town
Hall. (fn. 86) There, too, were butchers' shambles, (fn. 87)
while pigs were sold in front of the site later occupied by the London Inn, now the way into Common Close. (fn. 88) When the Town Hall was demolished
in 1832, new shambles and a pig market were provided behind it; the shambles still stood, derelict,
in 1962. The provision of a building for the corn
market was undertaken by Lord Bath in 1855.
It was designed by T. H. Wyatt (fn. 89) in the form of a
four-sided piazza supported by cast-iron arcades
and opening upon a central court-yard. After it
ceased to be used it was roofed over and was in
1962 used as a garage and two lock-up shops.
A yearly fair on the vigil, day, and morrow of
the feast of St. Laurence (9-11 August) was granted
to William Mauduit, lord of Warminster, in 1253, (fn. 90)
and a second fair, lasting from 22 to 29 October to
Henry Greene in 1447. (fn. 91) Thomas Thynne obtained
a grant of a third fair, from 10 to 12 April, in 1679. (fn. 92)
All three fairs were still held in 1770, when the
dates were given as 11 April, 10 August, and
28 October. (fn. 93) By the end of the 18th century the
date of the first fair was 22 April. (fn. 94) All three fairs
survived into the 20th century, (fn. 95) and the April
and October fairs were still held in 1961. (fn. 96) The
August fair was called Hang Fair in the 19th
century because of some executions which took
place on Sutton Common on that day in 1783. (fn. 97)
The tolls of the fairs belonged to the lords of
the capital manor. In the 14th and 15th centuries
they generally yielded between 30s. and 50s. a
year. (fn. 98) They were subsequently let with the
bailiwick in the same way as the market. When the
office was in hand in the early 19th century only
the October fair was of much value, yielding as
much as £22 in 1805. (fn. 99)
In 1770 the fairs were for cattle, sheep, pigs,
and cheese. (fn. 1) Of these, sheep were apparantly sold
only at the October fair, (fn. 2) which from at least the
early 19th century was the principal one of the
three. (fn. 3) In the 1820's as many as 20,000 sheep had
changed hands at it, (fn. 4) and large quantities of
cattle were sold. (fn. 5) This fair continued to be
important throughout the century, between 10,000
and 20,000 sheep being regularly sold. (fn. 6) The April
fair also remained a business fair, but by c. 1880
the August one was given over entirely to amusements. (fn. 7) It fell out of use soon after that time, but
in 1963 the April and October fairs were still held
in the Market Place, mainly for pleasure. (fn. 8)
The April and August fairs were regularly held
in the street, but in the 18th century the sheep fair
in October had long been held in a paddock called
Carrion Close, lying immediately north of Portway
House. (fn. 9) After the inclosure of the parish in the
1780's a more convenient place was found in a
field belonging to Warminster Farm just north of
Chain Street (now George Street), and Carrion
Close and the old hurdle house in the Common
Close were let. (fn. 10) By 1839 this field had been abandoned in favour of one in Beastleaze opposite the
end of North Row. (fn. 11) Finally in 1856 a field near
the station was chosen; (fn. 12) after the Urban District
Council had acquired the tolls of the market it was
asphalted and made into the present market
yard. (fn. 13)