Records relating to Bath City markets

The first charters to grant the right to hold fairs and markets in Bath were issued not to the citizens of Bath but to the Bishop of Bath and Wells. One is dated 1284 and the second 1371; by the latter date there was a well-established pattern of market days. Bath City Council seems to have gained the rights to the market in a piecemeal fashion. A 1447 charter gives the Mayor the right to enforce weights and measures in Bath, an important aspect of the role of a clerk of the market. A 1545 charter to the Mayor and Citizens grants the right to hold an annual fair, and the 1590 charter confirms the City Council's customary rights to fairs and markets.

Old maps of Bath show the market in the middle of the High Street. In the 17th and early 18th centuries the Market House or Guildhall was a free-standing building set up on pillars with an open market space underneath. There would in addition have been many open-air stalls in the surrounding street. By the 1700s the Butchers' market or Shambles was in the space between the High Street and the river, where the Guildhall now stands.

Council records from the 1700s show how the everyday running of the markets was managed. The income from the rents of stall-holders was always quite considerable, which made the markets a worthwhile business enterprise for the Corporation. The Mayor was clerk of the market but leased out their management to two Market Bailiffs who collected the rents as profit and dealt with day to day affairs. They also had a supervisory role and could challenge underhand practices and illegal trading. In 1745 permanent stalls for the butchers were built, and in 1762 permanent stalls for the vegetable market were constructed at the same site, with a weigh-house for hides and skins. From 1767 the market was held daily.

The 'Bath Act' of 1766, sponsored by the Corporation, established commissioners who carried out a number of improvements in the city, including relocating the provisions market away from the High Street. The market was moved behind the corporation's newly-completed Guildhall in 1777. The old market-house and Guildhall in the centre of the High Street was demolished.

The new market lay-out created a crescent of neat, numbered and covered stalls that wrapped round the Guildhall on its north, south and east sides, approached by formal entrances off High Street. These were grouped by trade, with separate sections for poultry, meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, potatoes, butter and, strangely, shoes. This arrangement continued until 1862, when the present market building with its circular glass and iron dome, was constructed. The size of the old market was much reduced, but mostly brought under cover. A further reduction in the trading area came in the 1890s when the north and south extensions were added to the Guildhall, and the Empire hotel was built.

Despite a rising number of food-shops in Bath, the market remained essential for the distribution of perishable produce, both wholesale and retail, for an area of at least ten miles well into the twentieth-century. The provisions market next to the Guildhall remains the property of Bath & North East Somerset Council today.

The corn and cattle markets opened in Walcot Street in 1811 and had closed by the late 1940s.

This description has been compiled using the following sources:

Trevor Fawcett, 'Bath Administer'd', Ruton, 2001
John Wroughton , 'Stuart Bath' (Bath, 2004)
John Wroughton ,'Tudor Bath' (Bath, 2006)
Unpublished research by the Principal Archivist, Bath Record Office, Bath and North East Somerset Council

The records in this sub-fonds include:
-Papers relating to the management of the markets, 1790 -1980s; including reports to committees and council as well as treasurers accounts for the reconstruction of the provision market in the 1860s.
-Records of the day to day organisation of the markets including: markets and fairs leases, 1776-1834; market stall rentals with names of stallholders, 1790-1791; provision market rent roll, 1920s-1940s; cattle market register of animals sold and fees paid, 1923-1964; corn and cattle market cash receipt book, 1930s-1950s.

The records have not yet been catalogued in detail. Please contact the Record Office for further information.

Related records
BC/2 Records of Bath City Council and Bath & North East Somerset Council: Council and Committee Minutes