Market Hall Aberystwyth History

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aberystwyth-market-hall-1.jpgThe newly refurbished Aberystwyth Market Hall was officially opened on the  24 June by Welsh Government's Housing and Regeneration Minister, Carl Sargeant AM

From time immemorial an open market had been held around the old Town Hall which was situated on the present Town Clock site. In 1823 at the Easter Court Leet, before Job Sheldon, Mayor, the Jury granted to Morris Davies, Thomas Williams, James Morice, Rice Jones, John Sheldon and John Lewis, all of the Town of Aberystwyth, a parcel of land in St. James’s Square for the purpose of erecting a market place thereon for the general convenience of the town and public, reserving to themselves all reasonable stallage and other toll for ninety nine years, on payment of an annual sum of two pounds and leaving all necessary carriage way surrounding the same.

aberystwyth-market-hall-2.jpgW.J.Lewis in Born on a Perilous Rock says (p.134) ‘The live stock markets were held out of doors and until the second half of the nineteenth century had plenty of room on the town commons. The pig market was held on open land now occupied by Queen’s Street and Grays Inn Road . The old Welsh name for Queen Street was Heol y Moch (Pig Street). By 1762 however, some dwellings had been built in Barker’s Lane as Queen Street was then officially called, and the pig market was presented at the Court Leet as being a nuisance. It was then ordered that it be removed to a ‘more commodious’ locality, St James’ Square. Here pigs were sold by farmers and others from carts arranged around the outside of the Meat Market. In time the carts spilled over into High Street but this was stopped when that too became built up.’

After the building ceased to be a meat market, it was divided in half with the ‘back’ half used as a distribution depot by a fruit and veg wholesaler and the front as its present use. 

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Some improvements to the front half were carried out by the former District Council in the mid 1970s and after the fruit and veg wholesaler ceased operations, the building was once again opened out into a single space but with the rear section being an informal area.


Meet the Traders


14 stall holders sell their wares from the Market Hall, offering a wide range of goods including: antiques, binoculars, books, clothes, computers, curiosities, fishing tackle, flowers, gifts, homemade cakes, oriental goods, picture framing, soft furnishings, toys, vinyl records and much more. 

See list of Traders >

News

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The Towns Alive Award

A Ceredigion County Council project has been chosen as the Business and Economy Category Winner in the Wales Zone region of the Towns Alive 2013 Awards. The Aberystwyth Market Hall project was developed in partnership with the Aberystwyth Market Hall traders...

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