Good old days when Farm Produce Hall was bustling
CONTROVERSY surrounds the closed Farm Produce Hall on the Market Place, but little activity can be seen yet to transform it into the sort of crowd puller which has so improved the fortunes of Altrincham’s once downbeat Market House.
The hall was built in two stages after Stockport Borough bought the manorial rights to the market in 1850 at the then excessive price of £22,500.
The first storey of the old Hen Market or Cheese Hall was completed in 1852 after a timber framed post office was demolished to make way and in 1875 an upper storey was added to house the town’s library.
The alterations included a grand sandstone ashlar facade with a balustraded balcony, flanked by Corinthian columns with shell headed niches over the windows.
Political speeches and public announcements were made from the balcony, including proclamation of sovereigns.
The market was still the hub of the town until the 1900s, but complaints about the smell of cheese infiltrating the upstairs library, plus the weight of books on the floor joists prompted the building of a new Central Library on Wellington Road South in 1913.
There were once two red K6 telephone boxes outside the hall, but these were removed during alterations ‘for safe keeping’ and may now be in someone’s front gardens.
The grade 2 listed Farm Produce Hall is intended to become a cutting edge eatery venue following on from the success of Foodie Friday events on the Market Place, with craft beers, pizza from wood fired ovens and other specialist foods on sale.
This has been condemned as an attempt at gentrification, but the fact remains that something must be done to improve the attenuated state of the market.
In 1988 Stockport Heritage Trust successfully fought to save Staircase House and the Market Place against plans to build over both with a supermarket extension and an hotel.
In the early 2000s, when we opened a heritage centre in St Mary’s Church, bustling stalls straddled both sides of the Covered Market, up Churchgate, over Petersgate Bridge and in Castle Yard.
The Market Place was clearly worth saving. But shopping culture has changed – traditional customers and trade has dropped away. Now it is a case of adapt to survive. »»Stories of the good old days before digital sent the world mad will take you on a journey of nostalgia through the pages of Stockport Heritage Magazine – back copies on sale in St Mary’s Heritage Centre and online www. stockportheritagemagazine.co.uk