Christmas Scene at Northampton Market in the Sixties
This is the scene on a Saturday before Christmas over thirty years ago, and it sums up the atmosphere of the market at its most bustling and colourful. Stallholders from early morning were busy making their stalls as gay as possible. Christmas trees lay on top of the stalls. Boughs of berried holly hung down the front posts. Rows of French mistletoe were delicately strung across the front of the stalls with the bright light from a row of pressure gas lamps shining through the mass of tiny white berries. By nine o'clock nearly all the stalls, some with Christmas gifts and gaily filled children's stockings, began to get busy. On the china stall at the top of the market, the whole family would be selling all kinds of gift china to the customers. By mid-morning, the Mayor and Mayoress and the Markets' Committee came round to judge the stalls, looking for the best Christmas display, and to present the cup.
Display of poultry for Christmas in George Row, Northampton Market in 1930
Soon the crowds were piling onto the buses that were so convenient, stopping by the market, on Mercers Row and the Drapery, with their arms full of Christmas. Father with a large Christmas tree asking the conductor if they could leave the tree under the stairs at the rear of the bus - still holding the large cockerel, and loaded with shopping -Mother trying to seat the children on the bus. All around the outer part of the market was a scene of activity. Two men busy tying a six-foot tree on the top of a car. Heaps of celery being cleaned and passed onto the stalls. The same with crates of cauliflowers.
This is an extract from Northampton Market and Forty Years Trading There by Fred Golby, and is reproduced by kind permission of the author. The book is available from Golby’s Garden Centre, local bookshops and libraries.
See Also
Book Reviews: Northampton Market and Forty Years Trading There