MARKETS AND FAIRS (fn. 1)
Peter the steward received a grant, made probably
in 1166, of a market to be held each Thursday at his
castle of Birmingham. When the charter was confirmed in 1189 'castle' was amended to 'township'
(villam); (fn. 2) presumably the original word had been
used in error. William of Birmingham claimed in
1285 that this market had been held without intermission (fn. 3) and in 1308 another William alleged that
his ancestors had held it before the Conquest. (fn. 4) In a
suit of 1403 the then William of Birmingham claimed
that 1d. toll should have been paid by some Wednesbury men on each beast they bought at his
Thursday market. The suit was also concerned with
cloth, iron, and brass bought at the market. (fn. 5) In 1529
tolls were paid by strangers who were not free of
the market on each beast, while those who were free
paid 1d. a year. Burgesses and commoners of the
town paid no toll. (fn. 6) In 1553 the bailiff and commonalty of Birmingham were tenants at will of stalls
for the fishmongers, butchers, and tanners in the
market. (fn. 7)
The lack of any large market place meant that as
trade grew the market spread into many of the
streets in the centre of the town. (fn. 8) By 1553 the
Cornmarket, the Welsh Market and the English
Market were all apparently separate places. (fn. 9)
Westley's map of 1731 shows the corn market in the
Bull Ring, with the shambles above it and the beast
market in the High Street. In 1749 the sellers of
earthenware and garden produce were warned not
to encroach upon the space reserved for the corn
market. (fn. 10) The cheese market was moved to the
Welsh Cross in 1768. (fn. 11) A Monday cattle market,
which was later discontinued, was opened in
Deritend in 1776. (fn. 12) The main cattle market continued to be on Thursday, which remained one of
the chief market days throughout the 19th century,
although various goods were increasingly sold on
other days. (fn. 13) In 1791 a hay and straw market was
established on Tuesdays in Ann Street. The fish
market in Dale End was apparently started at about
the same time. (fn. 14)
From the passing of the first Improvement Act
in 1769 the regulation and reorganization of the
markets were among the principal concerns of the
Birmingham Street Commissioners. In 1806 they
became contractors of the tolls and in 1824 they
purchased the market rights and tolls outright from
the lord of the manor. (fn. 15) In 1852 the control of the
markets passed to the corporation. (fn. 16)
The first step in the reorganization of the markets
was made in 1769, under the Act, when the cattle
market was moved to Dale End. (fn. 17) In the early 19th
century the street commissioners cleared the Bull
Ring and moved the general market there from the
High Street in 1806. (fn. 18) In 1817 they opened the
Smithfield market on the site of the manor house
moat. This absorbed the former markets for hay
and straw as well as for cattle, horses, sheep, and
pigs. (fn. 19) In 1883 a wholesale vegetable market opened
on part of the Smithfield site. By 1900 the whole
site had been taken over by the vegetable market,
though a weekly or bi-weekly second-hand market,
known as the Rag Fair, was also held there from
before 1912 until 1957. (fn. 20) A market in Montague
Street was opened in 1892 to replace the pig market
at Smithfield. After opposition from the pig trade,
it came into use in 1897: meanwhile a private
market in Meriden Street had been used. The
remainder of the cattle market went to Montague
Street in 1898. The growth of the dead meat trade
had contributed to the decline in the Smithfield
cattle market. The street commissioners opened a
meat market in Jamaica Row, which was superseded
in 1897 by one in Bradford Street to which slaughterhouses were attached. (fn. 21) The Market Hall was
opened in 1835 for the general retail market. (fn. 22) It
was gutted in 1940 and covered stalls were erected
on the site. (fn. 23) The wholesale fish market in Bell
Street was opened in 1869 and extended in 1883. (fn. 24)
In 1891 there was still a miscellaneous market in
Dale End (fn. 25) and the open-air market in the Bull
Ring was still being held in 1950 for the sale of
poultry, eggs, rabbits, flowers, and shrubs. (fn. 26)
Various exchanges were set up in the 19th century
and later which were not managed by the corporation. The corn market in the Bull Ring was replaced
in 1847 by the Corn Exchange in Carrs Lane. (fn. 27) The
Birmingham Stock Exchange Association was
formed in 1845, though an association of share
brokers was apparently in existence before that
date. (fn. 28) It first met in the old Royal Hotel, then, after
being held in various hired rooms in Waterloo
Passage from c. 1874, it moved in c. 1894 to Newhall
Street, where the building in existence in 1955 was
opened in 1928. The Birmingham Exchange, a
commodity exchange dealing mainly in iron and
steel, was founded in 1861. (fn. 29) Its building in
Stephenson Place, which also served as a meeting
place for various purposes, was opened in 1865. (fn. 30)
The Grocery Exchange was founded in 1866 and
used the Corn Exchange buildings until 1908 when
it moved to its own premises in Newhall Street. (fn. 31)
It closed in 1934. (fn. 32) The Building Trades Exchange
in Cannon Street was founded in 1905. (fn. 33)
There have been a few markets in Birmingham
apart from the central ones. There may have been a
market at Handsworth in the 13th century, (fn. 34) and
there was one at King's Norton in the 17th and 18th
centuries. (fn. 35) The New Market Hall at the junction
of Prospect Row and Belmont Row was opened by a
private firm in 1837 to provide for the increasing
population of the neighbourhood. (fn. 36) It closed
between 1850 and 1858. (fn. 37) There was a market at
Gosta Green in the 19th century. (fn. 38) It was 'nearly
done with' in 1888, after a long decline. (fn. 39)
In 1250 William de Birmingham was granted a
yearly four-day fair in Birmingham at Ascensiontide. (fn. 40) In the same year the king ordered that a fair
be held in his own manor of 'Bermigham' or 'Burmigham', which was apparently in Worcestershire,
on St. John the Baptist's day. (fn. 41) It was not specified
which of the two feasts of St. John the Baptist was
meant. This has been identified with the second
fair which Birmingham later enjoyed, but the
identification is unlikely. Birmingham's second fair,
which appears to have been first mentioned in 1400,
was held at Michaelmas, and it seems clear that the
order of 1250 related to a royal manor in Worcestershire. Possibly the name Birmingham was written
in error for Bromsgrove or Feckenham, both of
which were royal manors which had fairs at one of
the feasts of St. John the Baptist. (fn. 42) At all events,
William of Birmingham claimed only the Ascensiontide fair in 1285. (fn. 43) In 1400 two fairs were held, at
Michaelmas and at the Invention of the Cross. A
toll of 2d. was apparently paid by strangers on each
beast bought at the fairs. (fn. 44) From 1529 on, the two
fairs at Ascension and Michaelmas seem to have
been enjoyed without intermission. (fn. 45) At the alteration of the calendar in 1752 the Ascension fair was
apparently changed to the Thursday in Whit week
and the two following days. (fn. 46) In 1778 the horse
fair, which was held on both dates, was moved from
Ann Street to the street now called the Horse Fair. (fn. 47)
Onions were the principal merchandise in the 19th
century at the Michaelmas fair, which was sometimes called the Onion Fair. The fairs were proclaimed formally until 1851, and they were spread
over the whole centre of the town. From 1861 they
were restricted to the Bull Ring, the upper part of
Digbeth, and Smithfield. In 1875 the pleasure fairs
were stopped, although a few booths and side shows
were said in 1912 to be generally erected at Michaelmas on vacant land in Aston. After 1875 there were
only the horse fairs, which were abolished in 1912, (fn. 48)
and the Onion Fair which gradually declined. By
1955 the only relics of the fairs were a few extra
stalls set up in the Bull Ring market on the last
Thursday in September. Amusement fairs were still
held at various times of the year in different parts
of the city. (fn. 49)
Fairs were held at King's Norton until the early
20th century. (fn. 50) A section of the British Industries
Fair has been held at Birmingham since 1920. From
its first opening it has occupied a site just inside the
city boundary at Castle Bromwich, though it
originally used various public buildings in the
centre of Birmingham as well. (fn. 51)