Thriving Thursday market a great sight

THURSDAY last week was a nice day. The sun was shining, the town busy, with plenty of cars parked and people out and about enjoying the shops, cafés and our green spaces.

In Shrovetide Walk, the strip of black tarmac by Waitrose formerly known as Civic Square, there was a market. But it wasn’t a market like we’ve normally been seeing. This was a busy market, with plenty of stalls.

A new plant stall, a relatively new fruit and veg stall, our usual fishmonger and some other regulars had set up and there was barely any room to walk around, let alone space for any more stalls.

Granted, it wasn’t a miserable, drizzly day but it was any other day in the middle of October. Our good old Thursday Market – and not looking like an embarrassment for a change.

The focus recently has been on the Saturday market. A new Community Interest Company wants to grab it by the horns and turn it into something we can be proud of once more. But, in the background, our Thursday Market has been quietly bouncing back. And at a time when you’d expect it to be on the wane.

Moving the market to Shrovetide Walk was controversial and there are still calls for it to return to the cobbled market square. But, especially with this week’s addition of a memorial bench, here’s an area of the town which seems to be livening up somewhat.

Let’s hope the recent injection of enthusiasm can keep its momentum up.

Let’s hope the weather stays kind to the stall-holders who are clearly prepared to give Ashbourne one last go, and lets hope the town responds and supports them.

And if we can make a market succeed in that area, we might one day be able to get rid of that awful tarmac and replace it with something more appropriate.