The Market House stood opposite the Bull, whose sign crossed the roadand rested on it

Hoddesdon market has had a long history, and for its origin we must go back to the reign of Henry III. In 1253 a Richard de Boxe, then holding a manor which took its name from him, received in addition to the grant of free warren (i.e., the right to hunt freely wild animals) for this manor, the following grant of the right “to hold a market at his aforesaid manor of Hoddesdon on ‘Thursday of each week and that for ever there may be a fair once a year lasting for three days: on the eve, the day: and the morrow of Saint Martin (November 11th) unless that fair and market be to the annoyance of neighbouring markets and fairs.” Who this Richard de Boxe was, to obtain such a grant for a small town such as Hoddesdon then was, we do not know; but it looks as though he had some influence, or it may be that it was a case of money talking in those days, as it does to-day.

Although the last clause in the charter was one that was frequently inserted in these old grants, it was one that inevitably led to trouble and friction, and this was so in our case. We find that it did not at all suit the worthy Bailiffs of Hertford, who from about 1460, tried repeatedly to stop the holding of the market at Hoddesdon, saying that Henry VI, when staying in that town, had granted them the right of a weekly market to the exclusion of any other within seven miles thereof. This perennial dispute was not finally settled till 1560, when by a decree of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster of that time, the right of Hoddesdon to continue to hold its weekly market on Thursdays was upheld. In 1468 Edward IV inspected the charter of Henry III and confirmed it to Sir John Say of Broxbourne, his heirs and assigns-the market ‘rights having come into his hands as the owner of Baas manor. These Say estates were subsequently purchased by Sir ‘William Cecil, conveyed by him to his second son Robert, Earl of Salisbury, and so have descended in the family to the present Marquess. In 1535 Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex, owner of the market rights by his marriage to Mary, daughter of Sir William Say, petitioned that the date of the fair might be changed, and in the same year the King, by letters patent, after inspecting the original charter, re-granted the market to be held on Thursdays as before, but stipulating that the date of the fair should be changed to the Feast of the Translation of St. Martin (July 3rd to 5th).

In January, 1560, Queen Elizabeth incorporated the “vill” of Hoddesdon and founded a grammar school here. By her charter she granted to it the tolls and customary profits arising from the market which she states “used commonly to be levied in the market and used to pertain to nobody.” It is a little difficult to explain how the Queen was so misinformed, but documents at Hatfield offer a reasonable explanation. One dated 1581 is entitled “A note how the Free School at Hoddesdon hath been maintained ever since the town was incorporated.” The first item in this states “There hath been received of the profits of the fairs and markets by the sufferance of the Lady Bowcher (Bourchier) in her time and ever since by the sufferance of Sir William Cecil 66s. 8d.”
This Lady Bourchier was Ann, wife of William Parr, Earl of Northampton, and daughter of the Henry Bourchier mentioned above and also Baroness Bourchier in her own right. It was not until 1595 that the Free School ceased to exist; but from 1571 Sir William Cecil, who by this time had bought the Say estates, was in receipt of the rents from the stalls and shops in the market place.

Middle Row from a drawing dated 1832

The market grew with the increase of traffic on the roads, and before the end of the century was famous for its dealings in malt.
There were quite a number of stalls, some permanent, some pitched, and now the only survivals of these are the buildings which succeeded them, the projecting block of shops and houses from the Cannon Stores to Stagg’s shop. The block of houses known as ” Middle Row” shown in old prints and standing about where the War Memorial now is, was removed by Mr. Peter Christie in 1857.

Hoddesdon's new Wednesday livestock market, photographed on the day that it opened, the 24th March 1886.

All market regulations appear only in the Geddings court rolls. From these we can form a picture of the manner and conditions under which the market business was carried on in olden days. Our fancy may portray to us a motley throng of maltsters, fishmongers, tanners, farmers, and country people generally; the ground unpaved and undrained, littered with all kinds of rubbish and garbage, stray pigs and cattle hindering traffic which endeavoured to pass between the narrow passages left by the stalls. That this is no fiction may be seen by two quaintly worded orders, one dated 1592 and the other two years later. These run thus: “Wee payne all offendors for anoying our market with hogges and that they keep them in from ten of the clocke in the morning untill two of the clocke in the afternoon in payne of everye hodge so taken 4d.”
The other ran “That all who suffer their hogges to go abroade in the streets upon the market dayes betwene nyne of the clocke in the mornings and three of the clocke in the after noone to forfeit for every hogge 4d.” Another complaint in the same rolls reads: ” Note that the loders bringing malt and other grain and corn to the market of Hoddesdon do sute the same corn into shops hired by them in the town, and do not bring the same to open market to be sold, but do sell the same privately in the shops, both to the hindrance of the subjects and also to the hindrance and decay of the toll due to the lord.” This seems to rather anticipate present-day “Black Market” activities.
As, in later days, complaints were made that the coming of the railway was taking traffic off the roads, so in 1596 we find that there was much complaint by the inhabitants of the town, that by the improved navigation of the Lee (Lea) more malt was being carried past the town by barge, and dismal presentments were made from time to time respecting the “decay” of the town. It is however true that from about this time we begin to find fewer records relating to the market, and there is no doubt that a slow process of decay did set in, until somewhere towards the middle of the last century, by which time it had dwindled away to a few old women’s stalls and thus flickered out. The cattle market started by Mr. Bridgman in 1886, when the market day was changed to a Wednesday, was not a revival of the old market, though he had a yearly tenancy of the rights. After Mr. Bridgman’s death it was continued by his son and after his death by the latter’s successor in business, Mr. Blanchflower. This market was held further south than the old one, in the wide part of the street opposite Messrs. Gardiner’s and the neighbouring shops.

After the Great War of 1914 to 1918 one or two stalls began to be put up in front of the Clock Tower from which goods were sold on market days. When these began to increase it led to a petition being presented to the Urban District Council by the local Traders’ Association: asking that the Council should take control of these stalls and if possible give the local trader first chance against these outsiders. Then for some time a number of local tradesmen started to sell from stalls but, generally speaking, did not find them a success, and so the market day trading was again more or less left to the outsiders. Finally the Council entered into negotiations with the Marquess of Salisbury for the acquisition of the market rights, which ended in that body purchasing them in 1922. They are now vested in the Broxbourne Borough Council. Of recent years there has been a large increase in the number of these stalls. On market day they do undoubtedly bring in many people from the outlying villages; these people do not do all their shopping at the stalls, and they must help trade in the town. Also, to some extent the rates benefit from the rents derived from the stalls.

The remains of the fair in 1851

The fair of the Middle Ages was a totally different thing from its counterpart of to-day. For many centuries it was the main channel for commercial intercourse, where distribution and exchange took place in periodical gatherings and not in permanent centres. In their first beginning they appear as a religious rather than a commercial institution, their very name suggesting this, for it is derived from the Latin feria, meaning feast or holiday, and they were almost invariably held on some saint’s day. Indeed, it has been said by one writer “there is no festival without a fair? no fair without a festival.” These periodical gatherings, attracting a concourse of strangers from distant parts, offered an opportunity for the exchange of products, and thus became the natural centre for commercial dealings. Here merchants were always assured of buyers in an age when population was scattered and seldom concentrated in large groups, like the towns and cities of to-day.

Their development was greatly facilitated by the protection given to them and to those who frequented them by the state and the all-powerful Church. The market cross thus became the symbol and emblem of the peace of commercial intercourse in a world where battle and strife were of everyday occurrence.

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries fairs began to decline in importance through their inability to meet the needs of the population and through the growth of business in towns.
Largely for these reasons they changed from their original purpose to that of pleasure-as we know them to-day, with their sideshows, roundabouts, and other things to attract the people. Our fair was no exception to the general rule, and after its date had been changed to June 29th by the charter of Queen Elizabeth, it slowly altered its character. Those of you who are familiar with Tom Brown’s Schooldays will recall the writer’s vivid description of the fair in the Vale of the White Horse to which Tom was taken in his boyhood days by old Benjy. This description might have been applied almost equally well to ours, for in the earlier part of the nineteenth century one would have found the same collection of stalls, ginger- bread sellers, sideshows, etc., as were portrayed in that book. In fact, looking through some of the late Mr. E. W. Lock’s papers (the author) came across an interesting account of Hoddesdon Fair at about that time. It says: “Stretching along the market place could be seen a double row of gingerbread stalls, well stocked and attended, the well-known names of Coxshall, Stevens, and Hubbard being among the numbering.” It then goes on to describe the numerous sideshows and so on that provided entertainment and amusement for the people. It still continued to be held in the High Street until the last decade of the nineteenth century when the noise and the crowds around the stalls, booths, and so on became a nuisance. This caused it to be removed, first to a field in Amwell Street and from there to Pound Close, where it has ever since been held.