SNEINTON MARKET (Bath St)
Sneinton Market was established around 1850 and sold a great variety of goods.
A very lively traditional market was held here every Monday and Saturday morning.
The man here used to shout 'Chiiina Buyer'ers', and crash plates down on the tea chest to mark a sale.
Tony Keyworth - "Great photographs. I used to wander round on Saturday morning looking to waste me Saturday sixpence. I remember the crockery ware sellers " I'm not here today and gone tomorrow" they shouted and banged the plates edge down on the table to prove they wouldn't break - neat trick."
This stall holder is selling 'lino' or 'linoleum' floor covering which was the 'painted tar' type; a forerunner to vinyl flooring. The Lock up units shown here are on the eastern edge of the market.
Aunt Eliza with Susan and Linda at Sneinton Market in 1960 . - Jean Taylor
From 'City sketches' July 1st 1898 p 4-5.
The market was rectangular in shape bounded by Gedling Street on the north side, Freckingham Street on the west side and Bath Street on the east side.
1947 - Severe Winter
1956
1956
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1950 New shoes stall
1950
1950
1950's Bric-a-brac stall
1910
1931
Looking into the busy Market Place from Bath Street up to Gedling Street in the background. In this photograph there are stalls with carpets, bric-a-brac, secondhand clothes, furniture and linen.
1951 Sneinton market always sold a strange variety of goods. At the time of this photograph, it sold mainly second-hand articles, from clothing, reading glasses! and shoes to bric-a-brac, as well as household goods.
1956
1956
1974
Pownall's delivery van (photo of 1978)
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below are comments posted in the facebook group
- · Alf Morley worked helping set up the stalls for many years, he still helped out in his eighties bless him. On a Saturday morning it was a treat to watch so many friends chatting as they got their Bargains! Cherished memories I still have a couple of items that always bring back those Happy Market Day's down Sneinton
- · All fond memories of that market. Got my first pair of platforms off the shoe stall. You had to struggle to get near on a Saturday morning. Always a happy place where people milled around.
- · bought my black leather knee high boots from there gorgeous
- · Can you remember Maud with the lino stall opposite Jacks pots
- · Does anyone remember Pot Emma? She was a sort of rag and bone lady, used to push her barrow through the streets of St Ann's in the 50s. Rather scruffy, we were all amazed to hear that she died a very wealthy woman.
- · Going to the market with your headscarf and rollers in for stockings to go to Locarno in. Net to make underskirts with. Or a very cheap dress or skirt to go out that night in. Wonderful. My mam and aunty looking for bargains and how did they carry those heavy bags full of spuds and veg. All the way home. That's after going up Hockley to Woolworths and a cup of tea at sunshine cafe.
- · Great photographs. I used to wander round on Saturday morning looking to waste me Saturday sixpence. I remember the crockery ware sellers “I’m not here today and gone tomorrow" they shouted and banged the plates edge down on the table to prove they wouldn't break - neat trick.
- · I also remember pot stall, never seen so many plates thrown in the air, never dropped any though, it's a wonder with the noise of them clattering together
- · I bought some winkle pickers from there
- · I had a Saturday job selling knitwear and stockings for Michael levy in the 50s, my gran was a cleaner at Tooleys (Jane Hickling). For years, when she retired aged 80 they still bought her a box of fruit n veg every week!
- · I recognise one or two of the stallholders, some great characters and the shoppers all knew how to get a bargain, really sharp they were.
- I remember as a young boy my mum taking me to Sneinton market - on the odd occasion she used to buy me second hand shoes - at least a size bigger than my actual size so they would last longer. It wasn't long before I had to use cardboard inside the shoe when the holes started to appear.
- · I remember buying a pair of winkle pickers there in the early 60s .I use to visit there often as a child with my mother also .fond memories
- · I remember going down the market on a Saturday morning with my Nana, she always needed... a bit - a- net... for the kitchen or back bedroom window....She had a drawer full of the stuff:) Also a nice bit a crimp (crimpolene) to make a bit of a skirt or frock...Ha' ha happy memories of her & the market. Then off round to Jackie pownells, to see if they had owt' in.
- · I remember the man selling the handbags also the Lino lady! I used to work here on the market as a Saturday job, fetching tea and bacon sandwiches, selling knitwear and stockings! Worked for Michael Levy in the 50s I loved it.
- · I remember the market from when I was a kid up until times I was back in the UK to visit going with my mum and aunty in sat mornings.my greatgrandmar used to send me when I was kid for a pair of glasses with a shilling wrapped in newspaper. I had to find the Jewish man with the case full of glasses and ask for a pair same as the ones she sent me with only stronger. It took me ages to get round the market I always had to stand and listen to the pot man. Banging his plates on the wood box. Lovely lovely place the Market.
- · I worked for Jack Britton (younger not senior) in the 1970's loading up our lorry at the wholesale market in the early hours before heading off to the local towns to set up our fruit and veg stall for the day. Real people and hard workers, kept a young lad very grounded. Before that in the 1960's my gran would regularly take me with her shopping on the Sneinton Market, I loved listening to the hawkers selling their stuff with such a great line in comic repartee, it was like a vaudeville act. The Victoria baths, where I swam and played squash, couldn't afford the posh squash clubs. And then the police inspector John Bell, there he was, the young PC over 20 years before on the photo I put on here from the early 1960's at my parents’ house on Donkey Hill,
- · In 1956 when I was 14 I went with my mate. We bought an old fur coat for 2 shilling & 6 pence. My mum made us Davey Crocket hats.
- · it really was the most fantastic market atmosphere the shoe stall was my favourite as a teenager
- · Loved it. Went every Sat morning with mam. When I got married went to Market for all my curtains, bedding, and crockery from 'pot man’. Used to take my big silver cross pram, with basket underneath to carry all my fruit, veg, and meat home!
- · loved sneinton market and all the banter down there, my family had a pot stall on there in the 1900s
- · Mrs Hillary my neighbour had her second hand shoe shop there so every now and again I would go to her house to get my (new) shoes and with knowing her we got discount!!!!!
- · My dad used to have a pot stall on market. He'd bang the plates on a tea chest
- · My husband's auntie who claimed that she never shopped at Sneinton Market. Was photographed by the Nottingham Evening Post shopping there. This was placed on the front page of the newspaper. Much hilarity in the family.
- · My memories start when I was very young. Great grandmar used to wrap a shilling in a piece of news paper and I had to take her glasses I can still hear her saying. Go find the jew boy. No offence intended. And tell him a pair of these only stronger. He had a case full of glasses.it always took a long time because I had to take our Keith with me he wanted to listen to the man selling pots banging them on a tea chest. I'm sure he just wanted to see if they broke. Ha-ha. Lovely memories and my mum and aunty went every Saturday up until it closed to revamp it.
- · My Mum took me to Sneinton Market to get me some new shoes I really loved the new pointed shoes that had just come out. Oh no my Mum said you will have sensible school shoes. Well what she made me try on was hideous and they really hurt. Oh no my Mum thought I was playing up and made me have them. Them bloody shoes hurt me from day one. Ha ha happy memories or not still memories xx
- · My uncle had the crockery stall on the Market. Not £5 not even £3 lol unbreakable plates
- · My wife's gran was Francis Lees, her sons used to run a pottery stall on Sneinton market with her, does anyone remember her? Sons were blower, bimbo, Barry and parpo?
- · One of my earliest recollections was on Sneinton market, was of a huge pile of Glasses tipped onto a blanket, where folk were picking through them and trying them for size and clarity, some were minus an arm and most were to say the least BATTERED, but they were selling, My Mother in law as I recall picked a pair up to try for size, and turning to her husband , says , "what do you reckon to these George" His answer , looks nice Eva, and for 6 p she had a pair of glasses, I must have been around 15 years old then, But a lot earlier than that I recall the same sort of thing with False teeth tipped on a blanket , not a bit like they are today, these looked solid as a rock and made of rubber,( as I know now) and again folk trying them for size and fit, makes me shudder now thinking about it , but it did happen, just after the war , people were struggling to make ends meet, I would be 4/or 5 years old. how lucky we are today,
- · One of my earliest recollections was on Sneinton market, was of a huge pile of Glasses tipped onto a blanket, where folk were picking through them and trying them for size and clarity, some were minus an arm and most were to say the least BATTERED, but they were selling, My Mother in law as I recall picked a pair up to try for size, and turning to her husband , says , "what do you reckon to these George" His answer , looks nice Eva, and for 6 p she had a pair of glasses, I must have been around 15 years old then, But a lot earlier than that I recall the same sort of thing with False teeth tipped on a blanket , not a bit like they are today, these looked solid as a rock and made of rubber,( as I know now) and again folk trying them for size and fit, makes me shudder now thinking about it , but it did happen, just after the war , people were struggling to make ends meet, I would be 4/or 5 years old. how lucky we are today,
- · Remember going to Sneinton market to buy all my Christmas presents one year with a ten-Bob note. When dad saw what I had bought for 3 X brothers and 3 X sisters + mum and dad said I could manage the housekeeping in future.......lol.....well I was only 12 at the time! Very happy days.
- · Saturday's sneinton market mam would go down with my auntie Elsie buying fruit and veg, there was stall holder selling damage tins, a lady selling plates cups etc., fabric, Lino, shoes, Jim Wilson selling cheap sweets and chocolate now I.C. discounts on St Ann's the cafe in the corner everything you need, mam and auntie Elsie would have lots of bags so about 12 we would walk down Robin Hood street and meet them and help them carry their bags up Robin Hood street past Bancroft's building lots of people around great atmosphere
- · Sneinton Market" which played such an important part of our lives whilst growing up in St. Ann's.....it includes all of the various stall's & merchant's....a very interesting list...it includes "Wm. Bates" a well-known potato merchant or Billy Bates as he was known...my Dad used to drive one of his delivery lorries in the 1940's, and as a very young boy I remember going out with him delivering bags of Spud's and sitting in the cab next to him whilst he was driving...usually with our dog Toffey sitting on my knee...delivering to the numerous greengrocers & chip shop's customers in the area. It was a green flat back lorry which he used to park outside our back gate on Meredith St. facing the Gen. Havelock Pub just above Exton's...as kid's we used to play on the back of it....can’t remember the make of the lorry?...but it had a small Rag Indian Chief's head figure on the front of the bonnet.....all the boys were fascinated with it...can any of my old mate's ever remember playing on the back of it whilst it was parked up for the night?
- · Someone was asking the name of the pot stall man..... Can you give the name your family's pot stall was under Maureen?
- · The man here used to shout 'China Buyer's', and crash plates down on the tea chest to mark a sale.
- · THE SECOND HAND SHOE STALL
- · They used to have one shoe on the stall and the other one at the back. They were great, I was fortunate to have side 4.5 so I could get in all the samples. I think I bought a pair every month - brilliant market. Used to meet my mum, Elder sister, younger sister and her 2 kids, with me and Trudie, my daughter. We spent a couple of hours round the market then went somewhere for dinner, every Saturday - loved it
- · This stall holder is selling 'lino' or 'linoleum' floor covering which was the 'painted tar' type; a forerunner to vinyl flooring. The Lock up units shown here are on the eastern edge of the market.
- · Used to go on a Saturday morning with mates from Clifton on the bus. We made a beeline for the second-hand comic stall - DC Comics, Superman, and Justice League of America etc. Also War Picture Library, my favourite, with plenty of writing as well as detailed pictures. The Combat comics were a poor imitation of the WPL ones (in my opinion anyway) because the pictures were bigger and that meant you got through them in a couple of minutes. "Take that Fritz!" or "Banzai!" depending on whether you were in Europe or the Pacific. The guy on the stall sold them for something like 6d each or you could swap two of yours for one of his. Considering he'd sold them you in the first place, he was onto a good thing! From there up to the "tuffee" stall for a bag of mixed boiled sweets, my favourites being the mixed minty ones.
- · Used to like the pot stall, they used to throw the pots in the air, up their arms, they never broke any xx
- · Used to save all my bits of money to by chalk dogs ornaments for my Mam when I was a child , and our Mam used to buy all our clothes from there we only had new clothes for Easter or whit
- · used to work for smileys with me dad start at 3.30am finish about 11am
- · Used to work there Whittington florists
- · Very happy memories loved the tall guy with the amazing fabric stall against the back wall near the cafe?
- · we have a superb page especially dedicated to the Sneinton Market, along with the Fruit, Fish & Veg....Wholesale Market......our Dad Alec Miller drove a delivery van for Billy Bates Potato Merchants in the 1950's....he used to park it up outside our back gate on Meredith St. Can't remember the manufacturer of the truck it had the Head of a Red Indian Chief on the front of the Bonnet....it always fascinated me & all my palls.
- · We use to go on Saturday mornings looking for bargains
- · We used to go to Jims Stall ,the hustle and bustle was great, then I get all the fruit and vegetables, my Uncle Alf Morley helped on the stall until he was 80, he also sold Flowers on Exchange Walk, He even had a key to the Council House wash room ,lovely Character bless him . Happy days ,
- · Wendy Honeyman-Smith We've just done a book of the Stories of Sneinton Market - it has great stories from Nigel Lymn and George Rose which end up as a history of undertaking in St Ann's not just Sneinton Market. Brilliant!
- · Went there with mam for many things, being 1 of 13 kids, mam would buy half a crowns worth of cups, that we're seconds... Always a lump of something stuck to the inside through firing.. I could never figure out what the chap was shouting. Until I was an adult. Then I heard it... CHINA BUYEEEERRRSSS. Mam used to buy a roll of Lino from the big lady at the bottom.. All the rolls of coloured Lino stood up against the wall, she'd get one of the lads to bring it down, once you had chosen it, he would roll it out, and she would measure it with a stick. I can see her gold earrings dangling now... Nice lady too.
- · When I was a child it was a weekly ritual to go to Sneinton Market...as it was to go to Central Market...Sunday School on Sunday...