The Life And Death Of A Market Town (15 February 1974)
It is now about a couple of years since our old market town died. Nothing much was said about it at the time. People were too agog about what was left and what was taking its place. There was also the fact that it had died on several previous occasions since it was created by royal decree in the 1300s and each time it had come to life again. But this time death was final.
There was no room for a cattle market in the all-devouring new city. The market went to swell the prestige of Leighton Buzzard instead. And with it went the regrets of Bletchley and Fenny people who had known it all their lives.
True, there is still a market of sorts. It comprises the kind of general goods stalls that always tended to fringe the agricultural markets which were the core of the whole business.
But in losing its agricultural market while retaining and even developing its stall market, Bletchley – or more strictly, Fenny – is simply following the pattern of many towns and cities which last century in particular broke the same last link with their agricultural past and became exclusively industrial.
Such breaks are to be deplored. They breed a kind of artificial man who has no knowledge or appreciation of his agricultural roots, a man who thinks manufacture and commerce are the be-all and end-all of national prosperity when time after time experience has shown that the most vital thing for his very existence has been the [???] of the country’s ability to feed itself from its own soil.
I recall an army incident. We were preparing potato patches between the camp’s nissen huts when a young chap from London’s East End asked me in all innocence whether the potatoes would be ready for gathering that year or next.
The last time I saw him he was cheerfully “flogging” handbags in a famous London street market, which I suppose was more in his line than either soldiering or potato setting.
When Bletchley cattle market moved to Leighton it had been in continuous existence for just over 90 years. This followed a lapse, the length of which I do not know.
Fenny has had many up and downs, but about 1880 it must have been having one of its more prosperous periods for it was then that the market was resumed and also then that the old town hall was built.
At first the market was held once a fortnight – on alternate Thursdays, although the old charter decreed that it should be held on Mondays, a decree which may have been respected previously, for in 1911 some national directories were still giving Monday as our local market day.
The site of the market, however, was where it had always been – in what is now Aylesbury Street.
Reviver of the market was Mr. George Wigley, an enterprising auctioneer from (Winslow?) who conducted it in style, wearing a grey top hat. Subsequently it was carried on by his two sons, Mr. S. P. Wigley and Mr. H. H. Wigley. Fat stock shows and sheep fairs took place and on the eve of the Christmas show a dinner was held in the town hall. And so the market went on for the next 40-odd years.
But after the first world war, a change of location, though not of market day, was made. For some little time there had been cattle sales of sorts at the Park Hotel Field, which was handier for animals coming by rail. It was felt it might be better if the whole market went there.
The field had been used for 40 years by the town’s sports clubs, but the market dislodged them.
Before leaving Fenny the market had come to be known as Bletchley Market rather than Fenny market.
After the move it was described as the Bletchley New Cattle Market, but it was still in Fenny parish so the old charter link was maintained.
The market was inaugurated with a dinner. At that time farmers and everybody else liked good honest British grub – none of that finnicky foreign stuff for them. So on the menu were roast beef with horse radish sauce, roast mutton with mint sauce, roast pork with apple sauce, boiled potatoes, cauliflower scarlet runners, turnips, biscuits and cheese.
Toasters and toastees were Sir Herbert Leon, president of the market committee. Mr. S. F Jones, chairman, Mr. P. Wigley auctioneer, Mr. J. L. Shirley, Mr F. R. Hodson, Mr H. J Clarke, Mr H.P. Dimmock and Mr J. Colgrove, the last two representing the town and trade.
The market prospered in its new surroundings and by 1928 the committee were able to report : “The advance Bletchley market has made since its transference to its new location is astonishing.”
In fact, in the few years that followed a reputation was made by the market that stood it in good stead for the rest of its life.
Apart from the trade in meat, there was a considerable trade in other farm commodities. On one occasion in 1927 over 9,000 eggs were sold at an average price of 2s. 1d. a score and butter made from 1s. 9d. to 2s. 9d. to 2s. 1d. a lb. – but if you want that putting in decis and grammes you can do it yourselves.
By about that time Mr. Spencer Johnson was in charge. In fact, over the 90 years there were only two names as market auctioneers, first “Wigley,” then “Wigley and Johnson,” and finally just “Johnson.”
When I (landed?) in Bletchley in 1945 I enjoyed all this Thursday activity, including the homely smell that pervaded the precincts. Cattle and sheep being driven along the main street sometimes escaped their drovers and I secretly hoped that one day I would actually see a bull in a china shop. The nearest I did see was a steer which on nearing the slaughterhouse at Fenny sensibly took to its heels and created quite a commotion before it was finally cornered and rifle shot at the bottom of Napier or Tavistock Street.
It was unfortunate for myself that market day was also police court day. I suppose that derived from former times when it would have been easy for a magistrate or a defendant to nip from the Aylesbury Street market to the Simpson Road courthouse and back, but it was now a long haul from the market field.
It was also unfortunate because at the market you could catch farmers and others who took some catching otherwise. Sometimes the adjournment to the Park Hotel was as good as a meeting of the Winslow rural council.
Older people will know what I mean when I point out that the shows committee alone included Mr T. Faulkner, Mr W. Hanson, Mr E. Powell, Mr E. W. Peverill and Mr. V. J. North.
During the war and for years afterwards trading was hampered by restrictions. It was not until 1954 that the Gazette was able to print these two items : “The first free livestock sale after 14 years of government control was held”; and “since the de-rationing of meat Bletchley has had the biggest cattle market for many miles around.”
For a few recent years Leighton market had to come to Bletchley. Now it has gone back and taken Bletchley with it. All except the stall market. That is a comparative youngster as a separate entity. I was going to write something about that as well, but I suspect that I have run out of acreage.
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