Charting 1,000 years of Darlington markets

Darlington’s Covered Market is under threat from council cutbacks – and so, therefore, is Darlington’s identity.

Darlington is a market town. For a millennium, the heartbeat of Darlington has been the rhythm of the trade. Long before railways made Darlington’s name globally, long before the textile industry made Darlington’s name nationally, Darlington was the market town for County Durham and north North Yorkshire.

FROM THE AIR: An early 1950s aerial view showing the covered market with the council chamber in the roof and the canopies for the fish market. Cars are parked all the way up Houndgate

On market days and holidays, people converged on Darlington in their thousands, in search of both bargains and entertainment – as today’s front cover shows. The picture was taken on August Bank Holiday Monday in 1962 with a crowd of all ages enjoying the haggling and the bustling of the market.

But that was in a different age. We now live in the era of the supermarket and the click-and-drop shop. Can an old-fashioned market, with its roots in the 12th Century, have a place in the 21st?

Or does 1,000 years of continuous trading show that the market can always evolve to meet the customers’ latest tastes?

1183: It is believed that the Bishop of Durham, Hugh de Puiset, granted Darlington a charter allowing it to hold a market. He, though, was in charge of the market, hiring out the stalls and taking a percentage from the buyers and sellers. He had men stationed at the street entrances to the market to make sure no one got away without paying.

1293: The tollbooth, where the bishop’s rent collectors were based, was repaired. It was a barn-like building in the middle of the market – probably roughly where the covered market is today.

1532: Every Monday in Darlington was a market day.

1621: The Bishop of Durham ordered that his ale tasters on Darlington market must do their jobs more diligently or he would fine them 3s 4d.

1658: The bishop’s men seized a heifer in the streets of Darlington which was owned by a man from Richmond. He was trying avoid paying the bishop’s tolls by selling his beast outside the market.

1727: Dame Dorothy Brown, of Sadberge, a relative of a bishop of Durham, presented Darlington with a new Market Cross. The concept of a market cross dates from Roman times, and the large stone was supposed to symbolise the importance of fair dealing. Darlington had a market cross from at least 1313 and Dame Dorothy’s, which initially stood at the top of Tubwell Row, now stands at the top of Horsemarket.

1752, June 6: “On the Monday had been held the greatest market for wool that had ever been known (in Darlington), £1,000 being laid out therein.” Darlington market was now regarded as the best in the diocese.

1808: The old tollbooth, which had become the offices of the borough bailiff who was the bishop’s representative in Darlington, were demolished. They were replaced by the first town hall, on the site of today’s covered market. In 1815, at the southern end, a shambles, or meat market and slaughterhouse, was added.

1854: Darlington’s first elected council agreed to buy the Bishop of Durham out of the market for £7,854 19s 4d (about three-quarters of a million pounds today). Darlington council was now in control of its markets and its town hall.

1862: Amid great controversy, Darlington council demolished the town hall and replaced it with a covered market, clocktower and new town hall, which had been designed by Alfred Waterhouse, a young architect from Manchester who was also working on Backhouses’ Bank on High Row and Rockliffe Hall at Hurworth. It was controversial because the townspeople didn’t want their open market built on, and didn’t see the need for such an expensive market block. Consequently, the £7,815 contract for the construction was given to Randal Stap, of London, because no local builder would touch the job.

1863, December 9: Even though the clocktower was only at head-height, the Northern Counties Fat Cattle and Poultry Society held its prestigious annual show in the incomplete covered market. Thousands attended, and the newly-laid floor gave way, dropping ten men and three large cattle 12ft into the cellar. One of the men, farmer Robert Robson from Newton Morrell, died of his injuries, and the architect was initially blamed for his poor design – making the project even more controversial.

1864, May 2: There was no grand opening for the covered market, because of the controversy, but the first purchase was made at 7am by John Wrightson, the landlord of the Sun Inn, who bought a leg of mutton from Jack Crawford’s stall.

1865, September 25: A man’s hands and his wooden ladder were burned when he trialled back-lighting the new dials of the townclock with gas. His naphtha gas glowed green – and the clock dials were red and the numbers and hands were gold. The townspeople called it “Dracula’s Castle” and complained that they couldn’t see the time. Joseph Pease, who had personally paid £1,000 for the tower, had to pay for the installation of white dials with black details. The covered market, which was more hygienic than the open stalls, was soon too small and glass canopies had to be hung from its sides to cover more stalls – this became the fish market. When complete, the market had cost £16,356 8s 9d.

1878, March 4: The cattle market near Bank Top station opened, and so sales of animals in the town centre streets came to an end. By the 1940s, the cattle market could accommodate 1,000 beasts, 2,500 sheep and 1,000 pigs – the pig market was the largest in County Durham.

1953: In its market handbook, Darlington boasted: “The Markets Committee have one of the best shopping sites in the town, the termini for all buses being within a ‘stone’s throw’ of the premises. All shops within the vicinity are let, and there is very little likelihood of any becoming vacant.” The open market continued on Mondays and Saturdays, and it was so popular – particularly on the bank holiday fair days of Easter, Whinsuntide and August – that an overflow area on Feethams Field, where the cinema complex is nearly complete, was covered in pitches.

1970: After a decade of designing, the £2.5m Shepherd Scheme was signed. The idea was to demolish the covered market and build a concrete-and-glass shopping mall and leisure centre over the market square. One councillor said: "Darlington covered market has come to an end structurally. If we do not get it down before long someone is going to be injured."

1971: Labour defeated the ruling Conservative group on the council, pulled out of the Shepherd Scheme and were sued by the developers, Shepherds of York, for £1m. They settled out of court for £380,000.

1972: The Tornbohm Plan was unveiled, designed by the borough architect EA Tornbohm. It kept the open market, but again demolished the covered market to replace it with shops and offices.

1973: A public inquiry rejected the Tornbohm Plan which was described as “the worst possible municipal vandalism”.

1976: Several millions of pounds, and a couple of years, restoration of the covered market came to an end. A major part of the work had been taking out the council chamber which had been built into the market roof in the 1920s.

2012: In a debate about the future of the market, council leader Bill Dixon said: “The covered market is a jewel in the crown of this authority.”

2013, June 8: The 150th anniversary of the covered market was celebrated on a sunny day with the first public ox roast in the town since George V’s coronation in 1911.

2016, February 5: £500,000 was earmarked for the market’s first refurbishment in 40 years, but a structural survey put the cost at nearer £4m. Facing huge budget cuts, the council announced that it was giving traders three months to see if they could take the building off the council’s hands. If not, a private solution will be sought.