BARNSTAPLE PANNIER MARKET

Barnstaple has always been known as a Market Town and traders flocked to Barnstaple to sell their produce, the produce market stretched from the High Cross to the southern end of the High Street (from the gates outside of St Peters Church to the Royal and Fortescue Hotel).  

By the late nineteenth century this was considered out of hand and all previous markets were considered barbaric and a relic of a bygone age.  Horse, cattle and sheep sales took place on the Strand.  In 1852 an act of Parliament was passed that introduced regulations on markets and fairs.  This new act required a site be provided and constructed for the traders.   The Vegetable Market, as it was originally called, was designed by R D Gould who was the Borough surveyor for 50 years.   

The market building running from the Guildhall to Boutport Street was opened on 2nd November 1855, was acclaimed as a great improvement to the town.  Not long after this the market was called the Pannier Market, this was due to the farmers wives and daughters bringing their produce of vegetables and dairy products in large baskets, which were known as panniers.

BUTCHERS ROW

Butchers Row built at the same time as the Pannier market consisted of 33 shops with pillasters of bath stone and wrought iron supports to an overhanging roof, all facing north which kept everything cool.  A big improvement on the south facing roadside market stalls from the past. Today many of the shops have extended into neighbouring properties and can put on display a larger selection of produce, not all the shops remain as butchers although all the new shops continue to sell some form of agricultural goods, from bakers, delicatessens to Florists.