Market Place, EN2

Place Name

Descriptive, it was named after the market that was held here from 1632. Nearly half a century before a Sunday meat market was opened by the church gate to the fury of the clergy. The preachers condemned this sacrilegious enterprise and petitioned the lord of the manor for its closure. They were opposed by the villagers who in 1586 put up a counter-petition, adding for good measure that the curate, Leonard Thickpenny, had overturned a stall and threatened to beat the butcher. The clergy won the day but there were new calls for its return and in 1618 James I granted a Saturday market, complete with a court of pie-powder (a court that oversaw all judicial matters, civil and criminal, taking place within the market), to Sir Nicholas Salter and others and stipulated that the profits be reserved for the poor. In 1632 a house called the Vine was bought by the parish to provide a permanent home. However, as the decades passed the market faltered and by 1832, despite two attempts to revive it, the market was closed.

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