Old Market Place (1)
The tour starts at Old Market Place, possibly the site of the original Saxon settlement and now a Conservation Area. It became the medieval trading centre, created in 1290 by the fifth baron Hamo de Masci, possibly to help his military finances. A number of the buildings have medieval timbers and were built on narrow burgage plots which existed around Church Street, Old Market Place and Market Street.
Houses on burgage plots were probably built gable end on to the road and several bays deep to maximise the plots per street, each bay being 16 feet deep. All the original houses would be timber with wattle and daub, with their main room open to the rafters and thatched. Many of the more affluent burgesses would live in houses in Old Market Place that would be two or three storeys with an agricultural activity, workshop or shop on the ground floor and living accommodation above.
Old Market Place was originally laid out with cobbles which were replaced by setts in 1896. The Buttermarket of 1684 was in the middle of Old Market Place in front of Albert Place until about 1850. All sellers of butter and cheese were compelled to bring their wares here. Poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs etc were probably also sold in the market, together with other food, flowers, firewood, second-hand clothes and general house wares.
Over the Buttermarket was the courtroom with a lock-up at the side until 1838. There were also a stocks and a whipping post. Public floggings, eg for stealing, took place here until the early 19th century. More serious offences such as burglary and poaching were dealt with at Knutsford or Chester. In front of the Buttermarket was the Market Cross, which was also of religious significance. Intending brides and grooms had to declare their intentions here. There was another inn between the Buttermarket and The Unicorn, now the Old Market Tavern, known as The Roundabout House, which was pulled down for road widening in 1845 and the licence transferred to the Roebuck.
The three-day Sanjam Fair was held in Old Market Place from 1319 to 1894. It opened with the ceremony of Pie Powder. In 1823 a man sold his wife here for 18d (7.5p), which he believed was legal if he provided a halter to put over her neck.
Thomas de Quincey, in his ‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ described Old Market Place in 1814 as he travelled by stage coach from Manchester to Chester: “fruits and flowers were scattered about in profusion; even the stalls of the butchers, from their brilliant cleanliness, appeared attractive; and bonny young women of Altrincham were all tripping about in caps and aprons coquettishly disposed.”
The Market Place Traders erected the replica cross, stocks and whipping post in 1990. The lintel from the Police Lock-ups of 1838 in George Street, which were closed in 1866, was incorporated into the stocks’ seat.
