IT’S STALL OVER AS
Men graft for tuppence a day, the average lifespan is only 33, Henry III is on the throne and a new venture is about to bring a flood of trade.
The year is 1251 and Rochdale’s first chartered market becomes the crowning glory for this proud northern town.
But 768 long and eventful years later the crown has slipped. And the last stallholder’s cry is about to ring out after traders were told the market, one of Britain’s most historic, will close on October 14.
The local council has ruled it is no longer “financially viable” after the number of stalls dwindled.
And there are fears the closure could be mirrored nationwide as the double whammy of internet sales and years of austerity bite yet deeper.
The market – which can accommodate 26 stalls, but rarely does – is on its third site in five years.
Traders pay £ 15 a day for a gazebo-covered pitch each Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
An indoor food hall accommodates two businesses and a cafe.
Stallholders were heartbroken when they received letters saying the market was going.
RESURGENCE
Many believe it could survive, given a chance. None more so than “egg man” Peter Jordan, whose family would have marked 100 years at Rochdale market next month.
Peter, 76, who did his first market shift as a teenager in the late 1950s, groaned: “It’s wonderful timing. The council spent money doing this food hall up and now less than a year later they’re closing it.
“It’s sad. I have a nice place here and we are doing very well. We have 4,000 to 6,000 customers a month.
“My family has been farming for 120 years, and they give us a month.
“That’s the worst bit. There is a need for a market, there has been a resurgence. The market is a focal point of a town centre – we are the last of a dying breed.
“In Lancashire and Yorkshire mill towns small farmers have been bringing their goods into town centres for generations. There is still demand for proper products.”
Locals in Rochdale – the birthplace of the Co- operative movement – even put in a bid to manage the market themselves to try and safeguard its future.
Ian McGovern, 58, was among traders behind the Rochdale Market Co- operative Committee. Now trading at Bury market, he said: “A couple of years ago I put a tender together with some others. We worked here, it’s our livelihood and we wanted it to succeed.
“But I don’t think the council wanted it to. They said none of us had experience in running a market.
“I left because they’re not helping us. I sell guitars and amps, musical