MARKETS AND FAIRS
Gloucester's market and fair trade and the role
it played in the economy of the city are discussed
in the general chapters on the city's history. This
section gives an account of the institutional
history of the markets and fairs and of the sites
and buildings connected with them. (fn. 1)
MARKETS.
Gloucester's market rights derived
from ancient custom and were not specifically
mentioned in any of the town charters or other
grants, though in a suit concluded in 1590 the
grant of the liberties of London and Winchester
made by the earliest charters was used to support
a claim that Gloucester was an open market on
every weekday; the expenses of the defendant
who was successful in that claim were partly met
by the corporation. (fn. 2) In practice, however, from
the mid 13th century or earlier the town
authorities had limited market activities to
Wednesdays and Saturdays. (fn. 3) Those were the two
usual days for the sale of corn in 1514 and for the
country butchers to bring meat for sale in 1549, (fn. 4)
and they were the only two market days claimed
by the mayor and burgesses at a quo warranto
enquiry in 1553. (fn. 5) The two days came to differ in
the type of business transacted: Wednesday was
said to be the main market day for corn, butter,
and cheese in 1588, (fn. 6) and it was presumably the
usual day for the livestock market in 1729 when
'great markets' for stock were instituted on three
Wednesdays in the year. (fn. 7) Saturday had become
the usual day for the country butchers to come by
the early 18th century (fn. 8) and for the corn market by
1756, when it was announced that corn sales
would in future also be held on Wednesday. (fn. 9) The
old claim to a market on every weekday was
presumably revived later to justify the daily
opening of part of the new produce markets after
1786 and the holding of cattle sales on other days
than Wednesdays and Saturdays in the 20th
century.
Market trading was probably carried on in all
four of the main streets and some of the lesser
ones from medieval times, but the greatest
concentration of activity was in the upper part of
Westgate Street where it was lined by the shops of
the mercers and butchers. St. Mary de Grace
church which stood there was sometimes called
St. Mary in the market from the late 12th
century, (fn. 10) and the King's Board, Gloucester's earliest known market building, was put up between
it and Holy Trinity church in the 14th century (fn. 11)
and was used for the sale of cheese and butter (fn. 12)
until removed under the improvement Act of
1750. (fn. 13) In the mid 13th century the corn market
was being held in Westgate Street. (fn. 14) In the lower
part of the street, by St. Nicholas's church, fish
was sold from carts in 1213 when, however, the
sellers secured permission to move to a place in
Southgate Street which they claimed was their
traditional pitch. (fn. 15)
Upper Westgate Street was still the scene of
much market trade in the early 18th century when
it had a market house for the sale of bacon and was
the site of the stalls and standings of the
fishmongers and market gardeners; (fn. 16) a new
market bell was installed in Trinity tower there in
1706. (fn. 17) The produce sales then extended into the
other three streets all of which had been the site of
covered markets for many years. In the northern
part of Southgate Street a building for the wheat
market had been provided by 1509 (fn. 18) and was
rebuilt in 1607 (fn. 19) and again in 1660. (fn. 20) At the
beginning of the 18th century the stalls for the
country butchers were located at its southern
end. (fn. 21) The barley market house stood in Eastgate
Street near the gate (fn. 22) until 1655 when it was
replaced by a new building halfway up the street.
The new building, a substantial structure supported on columns, was built with materials from the
churches of St. Mary de Grace and St. Catherine
and paid for with £50 given by Margery Price,
widow of an alderman. (fn. 23) A market house for the
sale of meal, built or rebuilt in the years 1569–70, (fn. 24) adjoined the east end of St. John's church in
upper Northgate Street; it went out of use c. 1657
and was removed at the rebuilding of the church
in 1732. (fn. 25) Fruit and poultry were sold in other
parts of that street at the beginning of the 18th
century. (fn. 26) Market trading also extended into the
area of the Cross, at the meeting of the four
streets, but that was not a site approved by the
common council which barred hucksters and
apple sellers from standings near the Tolsey in
1646. (fn. 27)
Some reorganization of the produce markets
was carried out during 1737, partly in an attempt
to ease the congestion of the streets on market
days: new standings for the country butchers
were assigned on the east side of Southgate
Street; the bacon market was moved into Southgate Street; an order was made to confine the
standings of the city market gardeners to the
vicinity of the King's Board and those of the
country gardeners to the upper part of Eastgate
Street; and there was a further prohibition on
standings adjoining the Tolsey. (fn. 28)
The Boothall in the lower part of Westgate
Street played an important role in the town's
market trade from at least 1192 when the Crown
gave the burgesses permission to use it for buying
and selling. (fn. 29) It was being used for the sale of
leather by 1273 (fn. 30) and for the sale of wool by 1396
when the weighing beams and the tolls collected
there were on lease. (fn. 31) The building continued as
the official market for wool, leather, cloth, and
other commodities brought by visiting merchants
until at least the 1750s, the profits being included
in the lease of the Boothall inn. Sales made
outside the market in inns and private houses
were, however, a constant problem for the
authorities over the centuries. (fn. 32)
Although the pig market was held in upper
Northgate Street until at least 1741, (fn. 33) the other
livestock markets were presumably kept out of the
congested central area of the town from an early
date. Sheep Lane near the south gate, so called by
the mid 13th century, (fn. 34) may have been used for
the sale of sheep, while Bearland, where cattle
were sold at the midsummer fair in 1500, (fn. 35) may
have been the usual site for the cattle market. By
the beginning of the 18th century, however, the
sheep market was held in Three Cocks Lane, Half
Street, and the adjoining part of St. Mary's
Square, (fn. 36) and in 1779 the cattle market was held in
the street behind the College walls (later Pitt
Street). (fn. 37) The cattle market tended to spread
beyond its restricted site: in 1798 an order was
made to confine it to the College walls and Water
Street, (fn. 38) and in 1807 local residents complained of
cattle penned in St. Mary's Square and the
surrounding streets. (fn. 39) In the early 19th century
horse sales were held at the south end of Parker's
Row (later Brunswick Road). (fn. 40) In 1823 all livestock sales were moved to a new cattle market. (fn. 41)
In the mid 1780s a major reorganization of the
city's market facilities took the produce markets
out of the streets. The old market houses were
demolished, (fn. 42) and two new markets were built at
the cost of £4,000, which the corporation raised
from shareholders under a tontine agreement. (fn. 43)
The new markets, opened in 1786, (fn. 44) were designed and built by William Price. (fn. 45) The Eastgate
market extended from the south-west side of
Eastgate Street, on which there was a Doric
portico with iron gates, to Travel Lane (later Bell
Lane) and comprised an open area for stalls and
sittings and a covered building for the sale of
corn; (fn. 46) the market was open on Wednesdays and
Saturdays for corn, meat, pigs, poultry, fruit,
vegetables brought by country market gardeners,
and tradesmen's wares. (fn. 47) The new Southgate
market on the north-west side of Southgate Street
not far from the Cross (fn. 48) had a hall for dairy
produce and space for the stalls of the fishmongers, the town market gardeners, and earthenware
sellers; it was open daily. (fn. 49)
At another reorganization in the 1850s the
Eastgate market was rebuilt to house a daily
produce market. The new market, designed by
James Medland and A. W. Maberly and opened
in 1856, comprised one large hall with a massive
pedimented portico with Corinthian columns and
carvings of produce in the spandrels of the
arches. (fn. 50) The end of the hall on Bell Lane was
rebuilt in brick with a bell turret c. 1890. (fn. 51) The
market came increasingly to be occupied by
regular stallholders and by 1933 country people
with baskets of produce had ceased to come. (fn. 52) The
Eastgate market hall was taken down in the late
1960s during the redevelopment of that area of the
city as a modern shopping centre, and a new
market hall, opened in 1968, (fn. 53) was provided as
part of the development. The old portico was
re-erected (further down Eastgate Street than its
original site) as the main entrance to the new
shopping centre.
The Southgate market was rebuilt in 1856 (and
opened in 1857) as a corn exchange. Designed by
Medland and Maberly, (fn. 54) it had a tall Corinthian
portico forming a semicircular bay and surmounted by a statue of Ceres. (fn. 55) In 1893, when it
apparently ceased to be used as a corn exchange, (fn. 56)
the front was rebuilt flush with the street frontage
and part of the building was adapted as the post
office. (fn. 57) From that time corn dealing was
presumably carried on at the cattle market off
lower Northgate Street and in 1923 an exchange
was opened in George Street adjoining the cattle
market; the new exchange was, however, soon
largely abandoned by the dealers in favour of
sheds in the open market. (fn. 58)
Cheese was sold at the cattle market from 1851
in a market (fn. 59) established by a committee of subscribers and taken over by the corporation in
1866. (fn. 60) Another committee started a wool market,
held on three days of the year, at the cattle market
in 1852, (fn. 61) and a hide and skin market was started
there in 1857. (fn. 62) Sales of cheese and wool were
being held on one day a month in 1870. (fn. 63) In 1894 a
privately-owned market for hides, skins, fat, and
wool was being held daily at premises on the
quay. (fn. 64) From 1900 a wholesale fruit market was
held at the cattle market on one day a week; by
1928, when the corporation provided a new
building, it was being held on three days a week
and attracted business from a wide area. (fn. 65)
The new cattle market south of lower Northgate Street was built under an Act of 1821 (fn. 66) and
opened in 1823. (fn. 67) The leading promoter of the
scheme was John Phillpotts. The new market, an
open walled area, (fn. 68) was extensively remodelled in
1862–3, (fn. 69) and improvements were made several
times in the late 19th century and the earlier 20th
as the volume of business showed a steady increase, encouraged by the easy access from the
railway. In 1933 the market had accommodation
for 5,000 sheep, 2,000 pigs, and 1,000 cattle. (fn. 70)
The first cattle auctions were begun there in 1862
by the two founders of the firm of Bruton,
Knowles, & Co. and came gradually to replace
dealing by private treaty. General stock sales were
being held twice a week by 1910, on Mondays and
Saturdays, and on Saturdays there was also a
horse market and private dealing in Irish cattle. (fn. 71)
Between 1955 and 1958 (fn. 72) the cattle market was
gradually moved to a 35–acre site adjoining St.
Oswald's Road on the north-west outskirts of the
city. The large new complex of buildings included
traders' display units, shops, banks, a public
house, and a restaurant, besides sale halls, covered accommodation for stock, an abattoir and
meat market, and a large lorry park. (fn. 73) Gloucester
market had by then become one of the leading
stock markets in the country, known particularly
for its pig and sheep sales, the latter attracting
buyers from all over southern England. (fn. 74) In 1980,
when the firm of J. Pearce Pope & Sons shared the
conduct of the market business with Bruton,
Knowles, & Co., the stock sales were held on
Mondays and Thursdays.
FAIRS.
In 1302 the Crown granted the burgesses
a seven-day fair around the Nativity of St. John
the Baptist (24 June). (fn. 75) James I's charter of 1605
granted the city two additional fairs, to be held on
the Annunciation (25 March) and the two days
following and on 17–19 November. (fn. 76) The three
fairs, which came to be held for only one day each
and, after the calendar change, took place on 5
April, 5 July, and 28 November, (fn. 77) appear to have
been principally for cattle in the 18th century. (fn. 78)
The November fair was also the main horse fair;
the horse fair on that date was held in New Street
(possibly the later Queen Street) near the east
gate in the middle of the century. (fn. 79) After the
opening of the new cattle market in 1823 special
sales of cattle and horses took place there on the
three days, and by 1910 the days of holding them
had been fixed as the first Saturdays in April and
in July and the last in November. The April fair
had by then come to specialize in the sale of
shorthorn bulls. (fn. 80)
There was another fair, Barton Fair, which did
not belong to the corporation and was held outside the city boundary, factors which may have
contributed to its growth into the most notable of
the Gloucester fairs. In 1465 the abbot of
Gloucester as fee farmer of King's Barton manor
was granted the right to a fair on the eve, day, and
morrow of St. Lambert (17 September). (fn. 81) In 1586
the Crown granted the rights in the fair to Edward
Reed and William Hulbert (fn. 82) who sold them later
that year to Thomas Evans. Evans sold the fair in
1599 to John Madock (fn. 83) (d. 1606), (fn. 84) whose grandson John Madock of Hartpury sold it in 1683 to
Francis Wheeler of Bridgnorth (Salop.). Wheeler
was succeeded by his nephew Robert Carpenter,
whose widow Audrey settled the fair in 1725 on
their daughter Susannah and her husband Strickland Lodge. Lodge and his wife both died in 1764
and their devisee Strickland Holden in 1765, and
Holden's two sons sold the fair in 1765 or soon
afterwards to Samuel Hayward, (fn. 85) later of
Wallsworth Hall, Sandhurst. Hayward (d. 1790)
was succeeded by his son-in-law Walter Wilkins,
who sold his rights to the corporation in 1823. (fn. 86)
Barton Fair was described as a pig fair in 1586 (fn. 87)
but it later became widely known as a cheese fair,
serving the rich dairying region of the Vale of
Gloucester. (fn. 88) The volume of cheese brought to the
fair declined towards the end of the 18th century
as the practice of buying it directly from the farms
became more common, (fn. 89) but the fair still attracted
enough of that commodity for it to be described as
'our great cheese fair' in 1792, (fn. 90) and it was also
fairly important as a livestock fair. (fn. 91) It also became
the city's principal pleasure fair, attracting pedlars, gypsies, and travelling showmen in large
numbers. (fn. 92) By the 18th century the fair had
apparently become restricted to a single day (28
September after 1752), but by 1756 it had become
the custom to hold two mops, or hiring fairs, in
connexion with it, on the two Mondays following (fn. 93)
and by 1808 mops were held on three Mondays. (fn. 94)
The ancient site of the fair was in Barton Street. (fn. 95)
In the 18th century and the early 19th the mops
were held in a part of the street a short way
beyond the city boundary. (fn. 96) The livestock fair was
held on a field called Barton Hill, some way south
of the street, in the early 19th century, and in
1823 the corporation moved it to the new cattle
market. (fn. 97) In 1910 it dealt mainly in sheep and
horses, with Irish hunters and unbroken Welsh
ponies among the animals sold, (fn. 98) and by the 1950s
it had become a major sheep fair attracting stock
and buyers from a wide area and in some years
dealing in as many as 10,000 animals. (fn. 99) Pleasure
fairs continued in Barton Street on the days of
Barton Fair and the three mops, (fn. 100) whose hiring
function dwindled in the late 19th century. (fn. 101) In
1880 an attempt by the magistrates to move the
fairs was resisted by local shopkeepers and others. (fn. 102) In 1904, however, the installation of equipment for the tramways caused the removal of the
fairs to Oxlease by Over causeway. (fn. 103)