Evolution of the Market

In 1259, Roger Bigod, the 4th Earl of Norfolk, was granted the first Market Charter for Harleston. However, the title and rights repeatedly lapsed as the person with the title left no heir. It was not until late 16th C that evidence can be found of a market place. I strongly suspect that the original market place of more than 10,000 square yards was a broad based triangle with a base at Exchange Street and ending at Box Iron Corner, and more or less matches the footprint of the original hamlet of Harleston. This would have been surrounded by the carefully measured and laid-out burgess (strip) plots archetypal of a planned medieval market.

These plots would have been fronted by commercial properties of shops and workshops with a trading area, typically a drop-down flap or tables put out by the footway. There would be living quarters either over or behind the commercial part. At the rear would have been a smallholding. The medieval shop owner would have expected his household to be largely self-sufficient with orchards, vegetable gardens and stock pens behind the building fronting onto the street.

This practice could cause some trouble with the neighbours; back in the time of King James, William Aldred of Harleston took his neighbour Thomas Beaton to court due to Beaton’s pigs causing offence. To summarise; a 31ft by 2’6” strip of land between Beaton’s Orchard and Aldred’s Hall and Parlor was converted to a piggery, with associated smells.

The yards that are now such a feature of Harleston arose from infill and later development within the old burgess plots. As trade increased, shop owners and tradesmen relied less on their semi-self sufficient small holdings, but more on a cash based economy, purchasing both staples and luxury items from the weekly markets or other tradesmen. The orchards and gardens of earlier years became occupied by stables, workshops and humble dwellings for the workers and servants employed by tradesmen and small scale industrialists.

Over the centuries as the original market booths in the market place were replaced by more permanent buildings, and Harleston evolved into what it is today.