MARKETS AND FAIRS
MARKETS.
Colchester presumably had a market from the late Anglo-Saxon period or earlier.
The charter of 1189 directed that the markets
should remain as they had been when they were
confirmed by the justices in eyre under Henry
II. (fn. 76) No market days were specified in later
charters, but in 1285 the market days were
Wednesdays and Saturdays; (fn. 77) in 1380 there was
a complaint about an unlicensed Thursday market. Nevertheless, the claim made in 1452 and
1464 that the common market was held every
day is supported by references to the sale of
goods on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday during the
14th and 15th centuries. (fn. 78) Not all goods were
sold every day; a jury for the assize of bread
summoned on a Friday in 1341 quoted the price
of corn in the market the previous Wednesday,
implying that it had not been sold on the Thursday. (fn. 79) Orders issued in 1575 indicate that
Wednesday and Saturday were market days but
that Saturday was the principal day for 'foreign'
butchers. (fn. 80) In 1594 the market days were Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, but Saturday was
the only market day reported in 1634. (fn. 81) An
attempt in 1653 to move the market to Friday
seems to have failed, for Saturday was still the
market day in 1670. (fn. 82) The charter of 1693
granted a weekly general market on Tuesdays in
addition to the ancient markets, but by 1697 that
was a separate livestock market, and in 1724 the
general market days were Thursday and Saturday. (fn. 83) In 1768 Wednesday was the market day
for fruit, fowls, and country goods, Friday had
been the principal day for fish, and Saturday was
the day for meat and all kinds of provisions. (fn. 84) In
1825 there were some stalls open on most days,
but Saturday was the main market day for corn
and cattle, and Wednesday for poultry and fruit.
By 1837 the Wednesday market was 'of trifling
importance'. (fn. 85) In 1888 the borough claimed
markets on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday,
although by then the market was actually held
only on Saturdays. (fn. 86) The street market was held
daily in 1929, (fn. 87) but had reverted to Saturdays by
1989.
The borough courts and assemblies made orders for the market, mainly to assign standings
or stalls to particular trades. Not all trades were
assigned stalls, however, and the claim made in
1452 and 1464 that the market was held everywhere (fn. 88) suggests that there was less formal
organization than in some towns. Market standings or stalls were for country people; freemen
sold from their shops or from stalls outside their
houses. (fn. 89) The sale of butcher's meat, however,
was limited to the market, except for one butcher
at the Hythe and one in Lexden permitted by
an order of 1598. (fn. 90) In 1607 the assembly set up
a market bushel, which was repaired in 1645. (fn. 91)
In 1726 butchers were ordered to weigh at the
public scales provided by the town. (fn. 92)
The borough was leasing the market tolls by
1310, and seems to have continued to do so until
c. 1800. In the early 19th century the tolls and
other profits of the market were given to senior
members of the corporation to support them in
their old age. (fn. 93) The corporation appointed a
collector of dues in 1835, but by 1888 the tolls
were again leased to a contractor, Mr. Percy who
leased the tolls of c. 50 other markets in England. (fn. 94) The stalls too were leased, those in the
wool and butter markets by 1400. (fn. 95) In the late
14th century the town received rents from only
21 stalls and the butchers' shambles and in 1549
from only 9 stalls; other stalls, apparently in
private possession, were being bought and sold
in the 15th century. (fn. 96) From the 17th century the
butchers' stalls were normally leased to contractors. The borough assembly agreed to lease the
fish market, whole or in parcels, in 1715, and the
meat and green markets in 1810. (fn. 97)
Henry VI in 1447 granted the clerkship of the
market to the bailiffs, and the grant was
confirmed, with the assizes of bread and of ale,
of wine, and of weights and measures, by Edward IV in 1462. (fn. 98) Two clerks of the market
were appointed in 1515, and a salaried deputy
clerk in 1557 'for the more speedy punishment
of offenders'; a head clerk of the market was
recorded in 1693. (fn. 99) In 1565 the clerk of the
market employed men to arrest forestallers on
the outskirts of the borough; in 1656 the clerk
himself was among those ordered to confiscate
meat from butchers who stayed in the market
after closing time. (fn. 1) Masters or overseers of butchers, leather workers, and the fish market,
whose duties included presenting sellers of
faulty goods or unwholesome food, were appointed in the borough courts intermittently
from 1443, (fn. 2) and forestallers and other market
offenders were regularly presented in the borough court in the middle ages and the 16th
century and in the borough quarter sessions in
the 17th century. (fn. 3) A court of piepowder was held
occasionally between 1448 and 1482. (fn. 4)
The general market was held in High Street,
from its junction with North Hill and Headgate
down to St. Nicholas's church. The medieval
shambles were in the middle of the market near
the moot hall. In 1428 two butchers were
presented in the borough court for throwing
entrails in front of their neighbours' doors at the
end of West Stockwell Street. (fn. 5) In the 16th
century the free butchers' shambles adjoined the
east end of St. Runwald's church. (fn. 6) The medieval
fish market seems to have been on the south side
of High Street, west of St. Runwald's church;
in 1515 it was in front of the Red Lion inn. (fn. 7) An
oyster stall recorded in 1336 may have been in
a separate oyster market: in 1671 the oyster
sellers were ordered to move from their old
marketplace to St. Peter's parish, at the west end
of High Street. (fn. 8) There was a separate fish market
at the Hythe by 1443 for the sale of fish caught
in the borough's water in the Colne; it continued
until 1594 or later. (fn. 9) The corn market was held
at the west end of High Street, called corn hill
by 1336. (fn. 10) From 1463, and probably from 1400
or earlier, the butter market or butter stall was
outside the moot hall. (fn. 11) The cook row, probably
also near the moot hall, was recorded in 1381. (fn. 12)
A permanent leather stall, possibly with an
upper storey, built onto a house in the middle
of the market, was leased by the bailiffs and
commonalty in 1428. (fn. 13) Four leather-dressers'
stalls recorded in 1548 may have been in St.
Peter's parish, like the tanners' stalls recorded
in the same year. (fn. 14)
In 1583-4 the free butchers' shambles at the
east end of St. Runwald's church were rebuilt
as a two-storeyed, timber-framed building with
a tiled roof extending down the middle of High
Street. (fn. 15) The country butchers had separate
stalls, probably in St. Peter's parish where there
was a shambles in 1604. (fn. 16) About 1590 a new fruit
and poultry market, with an open ground floor
and a covered upper storey, was built in the
middle of High Street opposite the moot hall,
on the site of the earlier butter stall. (fn. 17) It was
known as the market cross by 1605, and the
butter market by 1639. (fn. 18) In 1592 the assembly
ordered the vegetable market to be held on the
south side of High Street from the Red Lion inn
down towards St. Nicholas's church, an order
repeated in 1621. (fn. 19) Between 1627 and 1629 a
cornmarket, probably part of the Red Row (later
the Exchange) at the corner of High Street and
North Hill, was repaired or rebuilt. Although
that was a separate room or building, as it had
a key, corn was also sold from stalls or galleries
'against the red row' in the mid 17th century. (fn. 20)
In 1659 and 1660 the assembly decided to let
ground in the market place to the highest bidder,
and perhaps in order to clear the road outside
the moot hall, ordered the demolition of the
country butchers' stalls, and the removal of the
fishmarket to Wyre Street (presumably the later
St. Nicholas's Street). (fn. 21) The country butchers'
stalls were replaced by moveable stalls erected
on Saturdays on the south side of High Street
in the 'High Town' in St. Peter's parish. By 1698
they had spilled over onto the north side of the
street. (fn. 22) A lease of land for stalls on the south
side of the street in 1698 allowed the lessee to
charge 12d. for a butcher's stall and 6d. each for
stalls for other traders, including shoemakers,
glovers, knackers, basketmakers, dishturners,
pedlars, and chapmen. (fn. 23) In 1715 butchers who
had no stalls stood on the south side of High
Street in St. Peter's parish; more butchers' stalls
were available by 1730 when there were as many
as 66 of them. (fn. 24) The fishmarket in Wyre Street
was replaced in 1697 by a specially built market
beside the free butchers' shambles in High
Street, east of St. Runwald's church. It was
repaired by St. Runwald's parish in 1751, and
was still there in 1803, but by 1880 it had moved
to St. Nicholas's Street. (fn. 25) The shambles were
extensively repaired in 1800, and the fishmarket
was paved in 1804. (fn. 26) In 1765, after complaints
that the market was concentrated in the Exchange, the sellers of butter, eggs, poultry and
other goods, except corn, were ordered to move
back to the old market cross. (fn. 27) By 1803 that
market place was disused and was turned into a
guard house; it was demolished in 1808. (fn. 28) The
butter market had meanwhile moved back to the
Exchange, the vegetable market to the south side
of High Street between Pelham's Lane and the
Red Lion inn. (fn. 29) In 1810 the vegetable market
was moved eastwards, to a site near the obelisk,
in the middle of High Street near the shambles. (fn. 30)
In 1813 a new covered market for meat, butter,
fruit, and vegetables was built by public subscription just west of the moot hall on the former
garden of the Three Cups hotel. The disused
shambles were leased by the corporation to the
improvement commissioners for demolition in
1816, but were apparently still standing when
they were offered for sale in 1819. In 1821
butchers were forbidden to set up stalls in High
Street. (fn. 31) The new covered market was unpopular
with the traders, most of whom had returned to
High Street by 1825, and in 1837 the general
market was regularly held there. (fn. 32) In 1888 the
market consisted of c. 25 stalls in High Street
and St. Nicholas's Street selling sweets, fish, and
birds; hawkers sold vegetables and some
poultry. (fn. 33) By 1929 poultry and eggs were being
sold in the cattle market in Middleborough; the
remainder of the general market of 53 stalls, 40
of them for agricultural produce, was held daily
in High Street. (fn. 34) The general market was moved
from High Street to the east end of Culver Street
in 1961 and to a site near the west end of that
street in 1968. It moved back to High Street in
1981. (fn. 35)
The corn exchange, formerly the Red Row,
was extensively repaired and remodelled in 1800
and 1801; its projecting central bay had a broken
pediment supported by Corinthian columns,
and was surmounted by a clock turret and
cupola; four Doric columns supported a cornice
and frieze below a flat roof which projected into
the street in front of the central bay. (fn. 36) The
exchange, described as the former butter market,
was offered for sale in 1819 and was demolished
the following year. A new exchange, designed
by David Laing, was built at the expense partly
of local farmers and corn merchants and partly
of the Essex and Suffolk Equitable Insurance
company which had occupied the upper floor of
the old building. The open ground floor has a
colonnade of cast-iron fluted pillars extending
onto the pavement; the facade of the upper
storey is balustraded with a central pediment. (fn. 37)
By 1844 the new building was inconvenient,
dark, and too small for the market, and in 1845
a second exchange, later the Albert Hall, with a
further 50-60 stands for merchants, was built on
an adjacent site. (fn. 38) In 1884 the corn exchange
moved into a new building on part of the Cups
hotel site (the former vegetable market) near the
town hall. In 1929 there were 110 stands there
and c. 300,000 cwt. of grain was sold. (fn. 39) The
number of farmers and dealers attending the
market declined in the mid 20th century, to c.
30 in 1962 when the corn exchange was taken
over by the Metropolitan Railway Surplus
Lands Company. It closed in 1967, and the
building was demolished in 1972. (fn. 40)
By 1427, when two cows were sold in the north
ward, (fn. 41) the main livestock market was being held
at the top of High Street, in St. Peter's parish.
Another livestock market, granted by the charter
of 1693, was held on Tuesdays on St. Anne's
field in Harwich Road from 1694. It was held
only fortnightly by 1748. (fn. 42) The market, field,
and fair held there were leased in 1733, and 1738,
and the fair field and tolls in 1769, by which time
the market was probably no longer held. (fn. 43)
By the early 19th century the Saturday livestock market in High Street had become an
obstruction and a nuisance; in 1819 it was moved
briefly to a site on the east of Balkerne Hill but
returned to High Street at the petition of the
traders. (fn. 44) Loose cattle apparently stood east of
St. Runwald's church, pigs between George Lane
and the Swan inn, extending into St. Nicholas's
Street if necessary, and bulls were kept near St.
Runwald's church. (fn. 45) In 1855 the market's removal from High Street was an election issue, and
in 1857 the town council set up a cattle market
removal committee which experimented with
holding the market in the castle bailey and
examined other possible sites. (fn. 46) In 1861 a public
inquiry recommended a site at the bottom of
North Hill, and the market moved there in
1862. (fn. 47) The new market, at Middleborough, had
permanent pens for animals and an octagonal
settling house or office to which a small clock
turret was added in 1898. (fn. 48) The cattle market
moved to a new site in Severalls Lane, on the
northern edge of the town, in 1975. In 1985 it
was held on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. (fn. 49) An attempt to hold a general market on
the site on Tuesdays failed after only seven
months in 1976-7. (fn. 50)
A wool market was apparently held privately
in a hall in St. Runwald's parish until 1373 when
the bailiff William Reyne moved it into the cellar
below the moot hall. (fn. 51) The market seems to have
been held on Tuesdays in 1393, but sales of wool
were recorded on a Thursday in 1381 and on a
Friday in 1425. (fn. 52) It was moved into the room
above the fruit and poultry market in 1592. (fn. 53) In
1595 the Assembly complained that wool was
being sold in inns and private houses, often by
false weights, and repeated the order that the
market should be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the fruit and poultry market, from 8 a.m.
to 11 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The
morning market was for free burgesses, the
afternoon one for both burgesses and outsiders.
The town maintained two sets of scales for
weighing the wool, kept by the keeper of the
wool market who was entitled to charge for
weighing the wool and for storing it in the room
above the market. (fn. 54) In 1602 there were separate
stalls for 'foreign' and 'new' wool merchants,
and the foreign merchants' stalls were recorded
again in 1642. (fn. 55) In 1605 the inside of the market
cross was planked to make a hall for weighing
wool in the market. (fn. 56) The order of 1595 was
repeated in 1651, 1660, 1681, 1686, and 1720. (fn. 57)
In 1729 the keepership of the wool market was
granted to the keepers of the bay hall, and
although the borough made a lease of both the
market and the hall in 1732, the market was not
recorded thereafter. It had been discontinued by
1748. (fn. 58)
FAIRS.
A fair for four days at the feast of St.
John the Baptist (24 June) was granted to St.
John's abbey at its foundation, and confirmed
by Henry I c. 1104. (fn. 59) The fair may have been
older, for in 1285 and 1290 the burgesses claimed
that the abbot should pay 3s. towards the farm
of the town for his fair, presumably to compensate the town for some loss of revenue when the
fair was granted to the abbey. Although the
abbot, relying on Henry I's charter, denied that
the payment was due, a jury in 1290 found that
it did belong to the farm of the town. (fn. 60) The abbot
was still paying 3s. a year c. 1387 when he was
said to hold the fair of the commonalty of the
town. (fn. 61) After a dispute between the abbot's men
and townsmen at the fair in 1272, both sides
claimed to have been robbed and wounded. The
town accused the abbot of bringing in the county
coroner to view a body found on St. John's green
during the fair, (fn. 62) but the town does not seem to
have made any claim to the fair itself. After the
Dissolution the fair appears to have descended
with the manor of West Donyland in which St.
John's green lay, being held in 1836 by Admiral
Nicholas Tomlinson and his wife Elizabeth and
Maria Ward as lord and ladies of that manor. (fn. 63)
Nevertheless, from the mid 16th century or
earlier the bailiffs, aldermen, and councillors, in
their gowns, perambulated the fair, presumably
asserting some jurisdiction over it. The custom
continued until 1695. (fn. 64)
Goods on sale at the fair in 1587 included silk
ribbons and leather belts, and linendrapers from
Sudbury and Hadleigh in Suffolk attended with
their wares in 1590. (fn. 65) A man from Earl's Colne
brought a horse to sell at the fair in 1613, and
the fair was described as a horse fair in 1767. (fn. 66)
The fair was for sheep, cattle, and 'other merchandize' in 1836, but was said to be a cattle fair
in 1837. (fn. 67) By 1861 it was a pleasure fair, and was
blamed by many in the town for exercising a
'most demoralizing influence', particularly over
working class girls. (fn. 68) It was abolished in 1872. (fn. 69)
Richard I in 1189 granted St. Mary Magdalen's hospital an annual fair on the eve and
feast of St. Mary Magdalen (21 and 22 July). (fn. 70)
In 1318 it was attended by traders from Greenwich (Kent), London, Sudbury (Suff.), Bury St.
Edmunds (Suff.), and Tunstead (Norf.), among
them a garlicmonger. Badly tanned leather was
sold there in 1439 and salt in 1498. (fn. 71) The fair,
held on Magdalen green, continued until 1872,
but does not seem to have been of much importance. (fn. 72) Its profits, which belonged to the master
of the hospital, were uncertain in 1582. (fn. 73) The
fair, held on 2 August after the change in the
calendar, was a toy fair in 1767; in 1825 it was
known as 'Scalt Codlin fair', apparently a reference to the baked apples sold or consumed at
it. (fn. 74) In 1863 it was only a small fair for 'pleasure
and pedlary'. (fn. 75)
A third fair was granted to the burgesses by
Edward II in 1319, to be held on the eve and
feast of St. Dennis (9 Oct.) and on the six
following days. (fn. 76) The grant may simply have
regularized a fair already being held, for in 1310
there was a dispute over a leather-seller's stall,
set up under the wall of St. Botolph's priory
outside the town, on the Saturday and Sunday
after St. Dennis's day. (fn. 77) That stall appears to
have been for a fair rather than for the general
market, and Bury field, in which part of St.
Dennis's fair was held by the mid 16th century, (fn. 78)
extended as far as the priory walls. London
merchants attended the fair in 1364. (fn. 79)
In 1562, when new orders were made for it,
the fair began under East gate and extended
along both sides of High Street as far as the town
well, presumably the later King Coel's pump
near the junction with North Hill. It was then
attended by, among others, fletchers, bowyers,
sadlers, soapers, tanners, glovers, shoemakers,
blacksmiths, goldsmiths, rope-makers, haberdashers, linendrapers, woollendrapers, hosiers,
upholsters, coverlet-makers, mercers, grocers,
pewterers, brasiers, ironmongers, turners,
basket-makers, fishmongers, salters, and sellers
of butter and cheese, from Colchester itself
and from as far away as Ipswich, Bungay
(Suff.), and London. Outsiders had standings
assigned to them, according to their crafts;
freemen stood in front of their market stalls. (fn. 80)
In 1578 the borough forbade the holding of the
fair on a Sunday, and the charter of Charles I in
1635 reduced it from eight to four days. (fn. 81) Late
16th- and early 17th-century references to the
sale of necklaces and bracelets, the purchase of
silk, and to haberdashers' and cloth stalls (fn. 82) indicate that it was still a general fair, but it was also
referred to as a horse fair in 1599 and 1613. (fn. 83) In
1662 the fair was attended by 'an incredibly large
crowd of people, country folk, gentry and all',
musicians played everywhere, and all sorts of
goods were on sale. (fn. 84) It seems to have declined
by the early 18th century; its profits, usually
leased with the butchers' stalls in the market,
were only c. £5 in 1736 and 1737. In 1698 the
lessee was allowed to take only 2d. a square yard
from freemen and 4d. a square yard from foreigners for stalls. (fn. 85)
In the 1760s the fair was for cattle, horses,
cheese, butter, and toys. (fn. 86) The cattle and horses
were sold in Bury field for four days; (fn. 87) the other
goods on the north side of High Street from the
exchange to the market cross. (fn. 88) Among the
attractions in 1785 was a 'learned pig' which had
previously performed in London. (fn. 89) In 1809 the
cattle were moved to St. Anne's field because
there was not room in Bury field for the large
numbers brought to the fair. (fn. 90) In 1822 as many
as 1,500-2,000 bullocks, 800 sheep, and 40 horses were sold. (fn. 91) The general fair in High Street
was declining in 1825. (fn. 92) Despite attempts to
move them to St. Anne's, traders were still
setting up stalls in High Street in 1848, although
by then the fair had dwindled to 'a toy and
gingerbread fair of the lowest description'. It
continued on the north side of the street into the
later 19th century, reduced to one day by 1888,
but by 1910 it was only a cattle and horse fair,
and its tolls had declined from £13 in 1905 to
£8 14s. in 1909. (fn. 93)
The bailiffs, later the mayor, and the aldermen
permabulated the fair from 1563 or earlier; from
1715 the ceremony was described as one to
proclaim the fair. (fn. 94) In 1814 the mayor and
corporation were led by a band as they walked
from the moot hall to Bury field. In 1910 the
procession was led by the town serjeant carrying
the borough mace and the four constables carrying the ward maces. (fn. 95) The fair was formally
proclaimed for the last time in 1932. (fn. 96)
The charter of 1693 granted the town a fair for
live cattle, goods, and merchandize, on 12 and 13
July each year. (fn. 97) In 1694 the assembly directed that
the new fair be held near St. Anne's, in the
fair field. (fn. 98) In the 18th century the mayor and
corporation attended it, as they did the older
fairs. (fn. 99) By 1861 the fair was a pleasure fair, and
like that on St. John's green was blamed for
corrupting the populace. (fn. 1) It was abolished in 1873. (fn. 2)
William III, in a charter of 1699 reincorporating the tailors of Colchester, granted to the
mayor and his successors a cattle fair in St.
Anne's field every year on the second Tuesday
in April and the three days following. (fn. 3) It was
called the Tailors' fair in the 18th century, and
was said in 1767, possibly in error, to be for
wholesale tailors. (fn. 4) It had ceased by 1803. (fn. 5)
Henry I in 1157 granted St. John's abbey a fair
for two days at the feast of the Invention of the
Cross (3 May), to be held on the castle waste
between St. Helen's chapel and High Street. (fn. 6)
The grant by Henry III in 1256 to the keeper
of the castle of a fair for eight days at Whitsun (fn. 7)
may have been an attempt to revive or replace
the abbey's fair, but if so it failed, for there is
no further record of either fair. In 1373 the
bailiff William Reyne claimed to have reorganized a wool fair, held annually on the nativity
of St. John the Baptist and the feast of St. Mary
Magdalen. (fn. 8) There is no later reference to such
a fair, and it seems likely that it was simply an
expanded wool market held to coincide with the
St. John's and St. Mary Magdalen's fairs.
A pleasure fair, whose attractions included
custard throwing, was held at Easter and Whitsun in Middleborough in the late 18th century.
It was known as the Wilderness fair from a
wilderness or maze belonging to Lexden park
which lay just north-west of North bridge. It
was still held, without the custard throwing, in
1843, (fn. 9) and was probably the small Easter Tuesday pleasure fair wrongly identified with the
Tailors' fair in 1863. (fn. 10)