The most visible and usually the longest lasting vestige of a market town are the market stalls. This is the case with Spalding and almost every Fenland town.
The market in the streets of Spalding declined throughout the twentieth Century. In the 1970’s it was still very formidable sharing its space with traffic stretching out of the market place towards High Bridge. If we go back in time it stretched through Hall Place and the whole length of the town up to High Bridge. I have found accounts of 240 stalls in the 1920’s and 168 stalls in 1948 although it is likely these were at seasonal events it does illustrate the size and importance of this trade.
In 1943 Raymond Hastings, the clerk of Spalding Urban District Council, expressed a wish for a covered-in market after the War. Discussions had been had at the time of the building of the cattle market in the 1930’s to consider taking the market off the streets and this discussion would be had throughout the rest of the century.
It has to be understood that the streets upon which the markets were held were shared with two-way traffic throughout the town centre and the streets were much narrower in several parts of the town. Market traders and many shopkeepers were against the removal of the market from the streets. This argument remained throughout the twentieth century, the traffic would increase, but it would be many years before the concept of pedestrianisation of the town centre would be considered. Indeed, I recall my father attending a meeting in the 1980’s opposing such a measure.
July 1950 saw a particular focus caused by a fatal accident to a pedestrian on market day in Hall Place , Spalding. Of much controversy was a fountain in Hall Place that had been gifted to the town by Mary Ann Johnson in 1874. By some councillors in 1950 it was regarded as a carbuncle that needed removing, others felt it was an important gift and part of the town’s heritage. The council decided in March 1951 that it should be removed as part of a traffic improvement scheme that saw one-way traffic introduced to parts of the town. The general impression given by press articles at the time is that people felt the fountain should stay rather than be demolished and that it should be circumvented with signs.
It needs to be remembered at this time, the early 1950’s, market stalls ranged in number from 70 to 120 each Tuesday and Saturday. There was little restriction on stall numbers at that time running the length of the town from Hall Place to Bridge Street where the road narrowed and even in my childhood in the 1970’s you would take your life in your hands on narrow paths with two way traffic. There was so much controversy over the removal of the fountain that despite the earlier decision the removal was debated a second time. It was told to me by Norman Simpson, later to be clerk of the Council, that Raymond Hastings was so enraged at this being discussed a second time he instructed the Clerk of Works to, “get the bloody thing down first thing in the morning,” and that is what happened.
In time a major roundabout would be erected at this busy junction, around which mods of the 1960’s would challenge each other to tear around the roundabout leaning over to see if they could scrape their running boards on the road without falling off!
1959 saw a sub-committee of Spalding Urban District Council visit markets at Stevenage and Hitchin to see modern tubular metal stalls with canopies. The then market inspector, Ron East, proposed a new layout that would keep the market mostly in the Market Place and out of the way of passing traffic.
A tender to manufacture the new stalls with tubular steel, covers and boards was approved costing £2,339 plus a provision for electrical installation in the market place was provided of £100. It was felt that the new stalls were a worthwhile investment in creating a simple to administer system of modern, clean stalls with coloured canopies to create, “A market which is gay and colourful and in keeping with the post-war improvements to surrounding buildings.”
1961 saw a proposal to move the market out of the town centre to Winfrey Avenue declined. The 1970’s saw the increased dominance of the motor car – the old Sheep Market was a car park and had been such since 1938. 1971 saw the first proposal to put market stalls on the Sheep Market car park from Spalding’s Chamber of Trade as “one way to bring added colour and bustle and spending power to this part of the town.” It has to be noted that here is a clear acknowledgement by local shopkeepers that the market increases footfall.
1977 into 1978 saw a significant replacement and renewal of sewers in the town that followed what was, being Silver Jubilee year, possibly the largest tulip parade weekend the town ever experienced with an estimated million visitors to the town. Indeed, at one point Victoria footbridge had access to cross it restricted because the weight of people was causing the bridge to physically bow – I saw this happen first hand at the time. The market was placed into Winfrey Avenue at the time. Shops in the town struggled during this period as the works were completed as there was little or not trade. The moving of the market to Winfrey Avenue was not popular at the time, the only feeling was one of improvement to pedestrian safety, but at what cost?
The decline of the market in Spalding town centre is, in my opinion, due to three factors: the car in the twentieth century; the internet in the twenty-first century; and a profound lack of business and social leadership and ability that had been the driving force in the town since the Improvement Commissioners were established in the nineteenth century.
The car: Perhaps the largest change I saw in the first decade of my life in the 1970’s was the growth of car ownership. I was brought up in Stonegate, Spalding opposite Spalding High School. Most teachers arrived by foot, bike or bus. I stood in the bay window of the house opposite the school and counted to three, because that was the number of buses that arrived each day. As I started school in 1971 that began to change, not only more buses arrived, but more teachers went to school by car filling its car park. Added to that more people down Stonegate started to own cars, whereas in the past it had only been a few. First one car per household, then as we entered the 1980’s it increased to two or more.
The housing estates that had been built in the post war period were well designed with corner shops, playgrounds and primary schools within walking distance. These had been mostly council houses and social housing. There was some growth in privately built housing estates, but these tended to be further out from the town centre often built on good quality agricultural land – this new supply of private housing was to grow and catered for the car owner with single or double garages and driveways, but they lacked the provision of corner shops, for car owners did not rely upon that provision.
Where I lived in Stonegate we were well served by a butchers owned by Norman Hipworth and subsequently by Pete Gooderson, and an excellent corner shop with a post office run by John Roberts and his father. The later has survived to this day, but is now a Tesco.
Peterborough was being rebuilt in the 1970’s and would become a city with the fastest average speed for road transport in the country because it was designed around the car. At the same time public transport faltered – regular daily bus routes to places like Bourne or Quadring became less frequent reduced to twice a week services or disappearing totally. Villagers who did not own cars were becoming cut off from their local market town. Even the train passenger service between Peterborough and Spalding was threatened with closure and only gained a reprieve by wise actions of the Spalding Urban District Council in providing funds for twelve months to prove its viability. Local villages expanded with more housing – occupied by car owners. Employees benefitted as they developed out-of-town processing sites in areas where in the past they would have supplied an employee bus service – employees could drive themselves to remote factories with large car parks such as Tinsleys at Holbeach Marsh.
The car provided great freedom to shop elsewhere, to work in different places and enjoy out-of-town recreational facilities. For example, when I got my first car I was delighted to be able to go to the large multiplex cinema in Peterborough and eat pizza or fried chicken afterwards.
1995 saw the development that replaced the cattle market in Spalding, a retail park called Holland Market, that benefitted from a huge car park! At the same time Spalding was by-passed with the A16 from Boston looping around the town. This in turn encouraged the redevelopment of what was Springfields Garden erected to promote the bulb industry into an out-of-town retail park and gardens that is easy to access by car.
However, creating a world that favours car travel had inevitable results by reducing the options available to travel by foot, bicycle or public transport. This is sometimes called the “barrier effect” by economists. It results in more and more people being recruited into becoming motorists that would otherwise walk, bike, or use public transport. The interests of people diminish because of the interests of car owners.
Now this sounds harsh, because having lived there, I can attest a car is a necessity in the Fens of Lincolnshire and beyond, even in towns like Spalding. It is not a luxury as without a car you are socially and economically disadvantaged. Indeed, parents can be forced into a position of needing two cars to access basic services whilst the other is at work.
It was hoped that the development of Holland Market in Spalding would help increase footfall in the town. It in no way did. Indeed, it reduced footfall, for once Spalding was pedestrianised the retail site was mostly a one-stop-shop in and out of the car without ever venturing further into the town centre. As we entered the 2000’s the market was declining as were the surrounding shops. The internet would accelerate this decline aided by poor town management.
The internet: The success of the market would be its ability to retain interest, customers and footfall by providing a combination of choice, niche products and value for money in an entertaining way. This is exactly what Jeff Bezos achieved with Amazon enabling his online market place to grow.
The twenty-first century has not only seen individuals have cheap affordable useable internet in their homes, but also in their pockets when out and about. With the growth of availability of this technology grew the internet offering that even reached into the consumables, fish, cheese, fruit and veg that were on offer in Spalding’s market. Not only the market, but surrounding retailers also failed to keep pace with this change by adopting branding and self-promotion on web sites and social media, and where able offering some form of internet selling – even if it was to collect from the stall or shop.
This failure meant that the pandemic was to hit the market place hard – although it did illustrate another trait – market stalls can provide a degree of resilience if well managed.
A profound lack of business leadership and ability: This hindered Spalding market in a town that is large enough to attract its own population plus visitors from both a large catchment area and tourists from further away. But to do this requires the sort of drive we have seen in Mr. Hackworth at the Holbeach livestock market to engage with people and entice them to come to the market to buy and sell using all the tools available to the modern businessman.
It perhaps sums up the poor management of the market resource that over fifty years since the last major purchase of market stalls the Council chose not to re-invest, rather insist stallholders bring their own stalls at quite short notice. This is not a management that was seeking to attract businesses to its market, but rather one that sees it as an inconvenience. Even the Market Place space has been badly managed, for having spent decades seeking and achieving pedestrianisation both the local authority and the police failed to enforce it properly. We have even seen a misguided group campaign for the restoration of the very Johnson water fountain to Hall Place that Raymond Hastings had been so keen to remove generations before. When local businesses have contributed to events using the areas in front of their premises this has frequently been objected to. When drunks, drug-takers and the general ne’re-do-wells make the town centre unpleasant for locals and visitors alike CCTV and Public Protection Orders are deemed remedies rather than proper law enforcement and face to face policing.
The pandemic illustrated an element of resilience that markets can provide to local people. The challenge for the twenty-first century for the shopping heart of Spalding will be to restore it to a place to go to that can be accessed by visitors and locals alike. To achieve this will require leadership. In the past this came from business people with vested interests in the town. Nowadays “vested interests” are treated with suspicion that source of talent is now rarely available and new talent is needed, perhaps free of party politics with an unselfish desire to make the town centre work for its people.
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