Have you changed your shopping habits ? Do you now purchase everything online and pay for it with a credit card ? or do you still like to go out and EXPERIENCE shopping. Feeling, smelling, tasting (if appropriate) and actually having a conversation with the vendors and other shoppers ? How times change, and as Christmas is fast approaching I am sure that there are many who will buy everything online through their computers. I spend quite a bit of time singing nursery rhymes to small grandchild. We cuddle up in a rocking chair, I put a blanket round him and sing old fashioned rhymes until he goes to sleep (then I have a sleep as well). But all these are now so old fashioned that apart from teaching rhythm and rhyming patterns of language, will the present generation ever need to know that Jack can be nimble and quick and jump over the candlestick ? And how many pretty maids are going a-milking, Sir she said ? And does the barber need to know how many hairs to make a wig? or indeed take snuff ? Lots of rhymes are about markets. Will markets also disappear before my grandchildren have grown up ? Simple Simon met a pie-man going to the Fair - but now he will probably be going to a Farmers' Market in a white van. But at this time of year special Christmas Markets seem to be very popular indeed. They are very colourful as well, and have jolly music and wonderful aromas of tasty food and tempting drinks on offer. This is part of the Christmas Market in York which is called the Saint Nicholas Fair and is (I think) mostly stall holders from Yorkshire. A lovely variety of crafts and produce for sale (even jams and jellies from Stalling Busk at the top of Wensleydale). I talked to other local traders from West Tanfield, they make hand made soaps. German Christmas Markets started the trend. A few years ago when I worked in Leeds I wandered round the German Christmas Market, admiring all on offer and then went up to a stall holder and asked for something in German. Total silence, repeated what I wanted, total silence, it turned out she did not understand German at all and was Polish ! Next week husband will be in Germany and make time to enjoy the Christmas Market where he works, particularly the hut that sells gluhwein. Going to Market was a very important part of culture, the geographical location of markets, the frequency of markets, the different types of markets and of fairs, all have shaped our customs and traditions. So it is not surprising that they crop up in nursery rhymes and stories. Oh dear what can the matter be (repeat) Johnny's not home from the Fair; he promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons to tie up my bonny brown hair. At some other point in his story Johnny was promised a new bonnet, and Johnny shall go to the fair / And Johnny shall have a blue ribbon / To tie up his bonny brown hair. So I am not sure which way round it was with the ribbons and the bonny hair, but I think he never came back again. And then there was that Old woman, as I've heard tell / She went to market her eggs to sell/ She went to market all on a market day / And she fell asleep on the king's highway. Unfortunately someone then came along and cut her petticoats up to her knees, which made her shiver and freeze..... And then there were the market traders who would "Cry" their wares, in the style of Molly Malone crying "Cockles and Mussels alive alive oh" Oh wouldn't you like this market vendor to have a song ! Markets specialised in different wares or produce or livestock. So if indeed you wanted to got to market to buy a fat pig and come home again jiggety-jig, or a fat hog and return jiggety -jog, it helped to have Owen's Book of Fairs (1824) which told you when and where to go. Richmond is very proud of its ancient Market Charter dating from 1155 and which was commemorated by a visit from the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in 2005. Daniel Defoe, in describing Richmond in the 1720s, said that there was a market for woollen and yarn stockings which were sold for eighteen pence a dozen or three halfpence a pair or even less. Ripon has an even older market with a very ancient charter dating back to the year 886. http://www.discoverripon.org/page/history_of_the_market.html It was a privilege to have a Market, it brought commerce into a place and those who provided accommodation and food would do well. I do like the idea that Richmond Market sold wine as well as sheep and horses, although those who know me know I prefer a pint. Even small places had Markets or Fairs, Burton in Bishopdale, now called West Burton, had Fairs on the 10th of March, 6th of May, 30 August, 26th of November and 3rd and 4th of November. Askrigg, now a small village, once a place of commerce, had markets for cattle, woollen cloth, pewter, brass and milliner's goods. And talking of hats, on the ordinary market in York at the back of the Shambles, there were TWO stalls selling cloth caps ! Is the distinctive headgear of Yorkshiremen coming back into fashion ? if you want to get ahead get a Yorkshire flat cap. Of course Markets and Fairs attracted all kinds of rogues as well as those going to sell and buy. In 1877 four miscreants were up before the Bench for misdeeds at Bedale Market. George Anderson alias Cooke, Joseph Spriggs, and Jacob Ralph Jelly, cheese and bacon factors and Jonathan Battersby, fish and fruit merchant, all of Northallerton were charged with relieving James Bartle, cattle dealer, of £125 in Bedale Market on 12th December. Bartle said they had surrounded him when he was sitting on Battersby's stall and Cooke had taken his purse from his inner pocket, who still had some of the money when apprehended. York had a Soulmas Fair which was for selling horses and cattle. This was regularly reported in old newspapers in November. It was also a target for horse thieves, and after the Soulmas Fair there would also be advertisements for information on stolen horses with rewards offered. Regular weekly markets supply fresh food, and I always buy my fruit and vegetables and fresh fish from the Saturday market in Richmond. There is a monthly Farmer's Market which sells a delightful selection of tasty food, and we have our favourite stalls which we go to each month. This is the Butter Cross in Barnard Castle, and every week my Aunt would go and sell her butter and eggs here, (hopefully she never had her petticoat cut to her knees), but she would meet other farmers, their wives and daughters, and have her regular customers. This history of markets and fairs is rich and varied, and served a purpose. Another type of commodity was people, Hiring Fairs were regular features at the end of the year, often at Martinmas time , 11th November. These are all advertisements from newspapers in November 1859 This one above was for Bishop Auckland. The sister of my great grandmother could have gone to any of the above Hiring Fairs, but she did not she went to this next one at Darlington. I wonder if she was attracted by the Menagerie ? She was hired at the fair by a farmer called Burnside. Within a month she had taken her own life. She wrote home to tell her family that she loved them and that the key for her trunk was in her hat box. We will never know what happened. But we can guess. So many servants were subject to abuse. But let's move back to cheerier times. Live Music, wonderful food, hot drinks, lots to look at, people to talk to. There are lots more things I could tell you about Markets, perhaps more another month. Meanwhile good luck with your Christmas Shopping and I do hope that you do not purchase everything online !
Markets deserve to survive and thrive.
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