`The East Midlands Markets: In Search of Country Life`

It was with great optimism and joy that I set off to meet up with old friends: Hinckley, Melton and Leicester markets.  All three markets I should add are as old as the hills and have hosted livestock and produce sales for centuries.  Livestock sales often took place in the town streets before being confined to restricted precincts.  The Melton Trust still runs the Melton market, whilst the other two are governed by local councils.

Hinckley market, which has just been awarded `Outdoor Market of the Year` by NABMA, boldly boasts its 700-year longevity on the stalls .  Precisely why Hinckley won the award is anyone`s guess, as it is a market obviously dying on its feet.  On a sullen, sulky Leicestershire grey morning there was noone about and many of the stalls themselves were bereft.

The market boasts originality in purveying only two fruit and veg and two greeting card stalls.  Everything else  per se is one of a kind which in this consumerist age means very little as it is all the kind of merchandise you can find at local shops and/or other street markets.  As a matter of fact, the Jigsaw Man (whose Hinckley stall I did find unusual) was selling at Melton the next day (Tuesday) and the man who sells handmade belts (absent from Hinckley on Monday) was well and truly at Melton on Tuesday.

A funny ps to the visit was the presence of traders from St. Albans (a trully robust market) taking advice from Hinckley about their durable stall frames (which look a bit like Swiss chalets)  And so on to Melton for their weekly Tuesday market which  has been running in the town centre since the Middle Ages and is one of the few charter markets mentioned in the Domesday Book.  The Melton general market in the town square isn`t a patch on what it was when I visited in the Eighties.  It`s all about `the commodification of rural life` and the corporate farms, cartel shops and chain hotels/inns  have nailed the last vestige of `country` or `county` life as we knew it.

In the Eighties there were the tack shops which sold fishing, hunting and shooting gear.  There were the traditional Melton pork pie and Stilton/Red Leicester cheese shops in local hands and before corproate people took over.  As a matter of fact, the Melton pork pie which is still produced by hand at Dickinson and Morris is also produced (scaled down of course) at a couple of factories outside Leicester owned by the Samworth Brothers and available countrywide at Tesco supermarkets.

It is not unusual for corporate to buy and run the inns- people with no affinity for or knowledge of country pursuits and for them to turn the old stables into storage cupboards and suppress kenneling for dogs and other pets.  It`s also not unusual for traders to sell junk from Taiwan or factory-made mass produced clothing.  Why I can remember when you`d be able to buy remainder local goods at the stalls- wonderful items like Melton cloth jackets and hardy shoes, cartridge bags and leather purses. 

To get any sense of the past these days you have to make for the livestock market on Scalford Road set within an old Victorian arena which was built to coincide with the arrival of the town`s railways.  The arena still has most of its street furniture intact and I was charmed to view two pillars fronting the entrance which had suffered little damage or defacement over the years. The Melton Tuesday livestock market makes up in volume for what it lacks in lustre.  In the old days smallhold farmers would be selling livestock to local butchers.  They`d be delighted with having made a couple of hundred bob and would celebrate convivially at the Market Tavern (open only two or three days a week in conjunction with the markets)

These days men in caps, jackets, plus-twos and Wellies are probably foremen working on behalf  of  corporate farms and  sales are made to representatives of major supermarkets.  Thus it`s all a bit commercial and slightly dreary. On Tuesday, there are several sales at Scalford Road including livestock (cattle, sheep and pigs); fur and feathers (chickens, birds, geese, rabbits); and also Farmers and Antiques markets. The smell of the circus is very much in evidence- that wonderful musky smell of animals that I hadn`t experienced since I was a kid and when Barnums used to come to town.  You could hear the roosters crowing. These were the good images.

But there was a down side- very down, as many of the animals, free-range, weren`t used to being caged, knew they were in for it, and panicked.  One of the saddest scenes, right out of D. H. Lawrence, was of a terrified cockerell thrusting his claw in supplication. I remarked to the man standing beside me that he was obviously terrified and knew something was up.  `Oh, ` placated the man blindly, `Animals don`t think that way`. One small boy was weeping because his parents were selling his pet rabbit. 

There were dismal scenes of a buyer walking off with a brace of dead hares- their bodies in that taut position associated with death and dying.  And there was the disturbing image of dead animals hanging on a sale rack- rabbits, hares- even a side of deer. Shocking! The fun parts of the sale are the Farmers and Antiques Markets.  Whilst it is true the Farmers Market undermines the charter market, it is here you can get some terrific buys in Melton pies and Stilton/Red Leicester cheeses which although not first-cut and homemade are still tasty and good value.  There`s a tremendous variety of antiques collectibles too (a lot of Victorian clocks, barometers, shelves, cabinets) and some excellent day wear.  It is here I did find discount Clarkes oxfords and Barbour jackets as well as cartridge purses and other sporting accessories for pounds less than in the London shops.

And then on to Leicester market, the largest indoor market in Europe.  345 stalls consume 1.5 acres.  The market is another ancient charter affair which was removed from one end of town into the city square where it has existed for years first as an assemblage of open-air covered stalls and latterly as an assemblage of stalls covered by a protective roof (the third incarnation of a roof now exists)  There is also an indoor market recently constructed and which replaces the Victorian Fish Market, currently being used by Lloyds Bank, and with the old signage `Fish Market` still intact.  Funny! 

The expansive market square which has been diminished because of the encroachment of stalls is fronted by the old Corn Exchange (currently a Wetherspoon public house)  It is Leicester`s most historical building constructed in 1850 by William Flint with a fabulous set of external stone  Palladian stairs (an anachronism!) added in 1856 by F. W. Ordish.  In the old days, `tires` of cheese were sold in front of the market hall and locals recall passing by the display on their way to dances held in the hall`s upstairs ballroom.

I was told the market hosts three stalls which purvey goods not obtainable anywhere in town.  These include: a tripe stall, a knitting yarn stall, and a collectible toys stall (specialising in rare American Mattel toys) There is also a hairdresser specialising in Afro-Carribbean hair and beauty.

As usual it`s all about politics and whilst the council has recently hired someone to launch events, such as pancake-making days, it is currently negotiating a licence for a rival Farmers Market in a stadium at the other end of town.  Because this other market is privately funded it`ll have upgraded facilities the Leicester town market sorely needs- new lavatory facilities, upgraded stalls and awnings, new roofing, upgraded dining and creche areas. One of the traders told me that he and a few others maintain the exterior market (wash down the hangings etc) inasmuch as the council declines to support regular upkeep. Disposable obsolence doesn`t have to be a reality of 21st century market life.  The past can survive with the future if only we have faith in ourselves.

Sandra Shevey runs tours of the East Midlands markets (http://sandrashevey.tripod.com/countrysidemarketswalk)

Contact: sandra_shevey@yahoo.com

Hospitality courtesy of www.goleicestershire.com  and www.belmonthotelco.uk