New market dodges old law to stay open

A POP-UP village market shut down by the local authority using a 13th-century royal charter has managed to reopen by rebranding itself as a food court.

Charnwood council used the 800-year-old charter signed by Henry III to close down an enterprise that sprang up in a pub car park to help the vulnerable during lockdown.

The market in Sileby, Leics, quickly became popular but it was stopped in its tracks by an ancient diktat that prevented any markets being set up within “six and two-thirds miles” of Loughborough, in order to protect its own market from competition. Sileby is about five miles away.

However, it has been able to return after cutting its stalls to five, from nine, meaning it does not meet the legal definition of a market and therefore does not contravene the charter from 1221. The market is now a “food court”.

Steve Smith, a fruitseller who helped establish the market, told the BBC: “We’re not satisfied but so be it – the council pushed us into a corner.”

It opened shortly after lockdown began and was an immediate hit in the village of 8,000 people, winning praise for helping vulnerable customers avoid taking public transport into town.

A Sileby council spokesman said the authority had “tried to strike a balance” between the Middle Ages mandate and the newly named food court.