17/07/2026
Newent Market Then & Now: The Upstairs Downstairs Edition 🏛️
As you browse the market tomorrow take a moment to wonder what actually went on inside the Market House on market days gone by?
Downstairs, between those famous oak pillars, was the serious business: butter, cheese, eggs and poultry, sold in the shade where the dairy wouldn't turn. The perishables got the prime covered pitch — everything else took its chances in the weather. Some things never change. ☔
Upstairs was where the real drama happened. The upper chamber was the town's office, courtroom and committee room rolled into one — where tolls were collected, dodgy weights and measures were checked, and traders who'd had a thumb on the scales were brought to account. Sell a short pound of butter and you'd be up those stairs explaining yourself before you could say "it's the humidity." ⚖️
So: shopping downstairs, bureaucracy upstairs. The medieval work-life balance.
Today the trading floor has spread out onto the square - but the Market House is still watching over it all, now open as a museum, where you can climb those same stairs without being fined for anything. Pop in on market day and stand where four centuries of market gossip happened. 🧺
Same building. Same market at its feet. Considerably fewer butter-related prosecutions.
Come and check out our wonderful traders downstairs, then head up top for a slice of Newent History.
Joining us tomorrow
Garden Angel Love2Petss Cottage Crafts Forest Candle Hut Greedy Gimmers Pitchwood Products Spice up the valley Plump Hill Farm
