June 2003
The history of Old Market Square |
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| Old Market Square c.1904 |
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Public floggings, animal bating,
open sewerage and Goose Fair have all been a feature of Old Market
Square in the last few centuries.
Local historical enthusiast, Bernard W Beilby tells us more... |
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Old Market Square was not the site of the the original
weekday market for Saxon Nottingham. This was at Weekday Cross but
there was often friction when the Norman population from around the
Castle had to come into the Saxon town.
The birth
William Peveril, builder of Nottingham Castle, founded a new market
on neutral ground for the two boroughs, now known as the Old Market
Square.
It was a large market of five and a half acres, functioning from the
11th century until 1928.
A wall was built across the market, running east to west, dividing
the animal market from the grain and commercial market - not as some
people have suggested, to divide the two peoples.
The Exchange
In 1724 the first Exchange was built by Marmaduke Pennell, at a cost
of £2400, and this became the administrative offices of the
council together with the Old Guildhall in Weekday Cross.
Under what is now the dome of the Council House, were the Shambles
- the meat market of Nottingham. It left a good deal to be desired
from the hygiene point of view for under it were caves used for storage
of raw sewage and more recently (in this century) semi-wild cats often
nibbled the meat before it was sold. The Old Exchange clock is now
in Trowell church tower.
In 1836 when the clock on the Exchange was illuminated by gas, the
fan burner set the building on fire and gentlemen were offering rewards
to anyone who would rescue the town's keg of gunpowder before it exploded.
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| The Exchange, Old Market Square c.1920 |
In 1926 the old Exchange was demolished and the Council House replaced
it in 1929, opened by the Prince of Wales.
Public flogging and beast bating
In the Square evil doers were punished by being put in the stocks
or pillory; women were publicly flogged either at the whipping post
or at the cart tail for quite minor offences such as stealing 10d
worth of coal.
They were also put in the cookstool and ducked in a muddy pool in
the square.
Butchers were required to have their beasts bated by dogs for public
sport in the square before they were slaughtered for meat.
On the Square
The market was removed in 1928 to the site of old St. John's prison
on King Edward Street, and now has moved to the Victoria Centre.
The arcaded walks around the Square grew out of the jettied, overhanging
fronts of buildings which, when the timbers became weak, were propped
up with timber posts. If no-one objected to these for a year, they
could be made permanent.
Running from Sheep Lane (Market Street) to Cow Lane (Clumber Street)
was an open sewer which probably fed the pumps and wells in the square.
For many centuries there were two crosses in the square and one on
the Poultry which were the centres of activity in the early days.
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| Old Market Square c.1927 |
Goose Fair
Here in the Square, Goose Fair was held until 1927 when the area had
to be closed to traffic for a week. From 1928 the Fair has been held
at the Forest. The first mention of a fair, at the feast of St. Matthew
(21st September), was in 1284 but it was only called Goose Fair in
1541 and it lasted for nine days, being of course a trade fair. It
was reduced to five days in 1876, and to three days in 1880.
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| Goose Fair on Old Market Square c.1906 |
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