<DIV STYLE="text-align:Justify;font-family:Georgia;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:16;color:#000000;"><P><SPAN><SPAN>1. <B>Marketplace, Frome, Somerset</B><P>On market day the marketplace and streets of the town would be crowded with greater numbers of country people than usual. Typically there were three different markets trading on the same day, and each with their own buyers and sellers. Farmers and agricultural merchants came into town to trade in the cattle and corn markets; in addition, in some of the larger market towns they might also be dealing in animal hides, wool and cheese. These markets might only last for part of the day with the remainder spent socializing with friends. In contrast, the general retail market would continue all day, sometimes into the evening. The general retail was the busiest and most varied, in terms of saleable products, of all three markets taking place on market day. Here were the farmers' wives and daughters, smallholders, cottagers, allotment holders and craftsmen selling everything from home-grown fruit and vegetables, butter, eggs and poultry, turned wooden ware and other domestic items, baskets, clothing and tools for farm use. Like those stallholders seen in the photograph of Frome's marketplace, some had stall covered by canopies, other's open, whilst some simply spread their wares out on the ground at the base of the market cross. besides the market's regular attenders, there were also itinerant hawkers who travelled between markets, often covering many miles in the process, to sell their stock, a miscellany of many items such as bridles, padlocks, cheap crockery and song sheets. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the variety of items for sale had started to dwindle as more and more of the market's non-perishable products were being offered for sale in the increasing number of shops. As a result, markets came to be dominated by those who sold home-produced foods.<P>See Brown, J., <I>The English market town: a social and economic history 1750-1914</I>, 1986.<P>P DX368 PH2/8/38</SPAN></SPAN></P></DIV><DIV STYLE="text-align:Justify;font-family:Georgia;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:16;color:#000000;"><P><SPAN><SPAN>1. <B>Marketplace, Frome, Somerset</B><P>On market day the marketplace and streets of the town would be crowded with greater numbers of country people than usual. Typically there were three different markets trading on the same day, and each with their own buyers and sellers. Farmers and agricultural merchants came into town to trade in the cattle and corn markets; in addition, in some of the larger market towns they might also be dealing in animal hides, wool and cheese. These markets might only last for part of the day with the remainder spent socializing with friends. In contrast, the general retail market would continue all day, sometimes into the evening. The general retail was the busiest and most varied, in terms of saleable products, of all three markets taking place on market day. Here were the farmers' wives and daughters, smallholders, cottagers, allotment holders and craftsmen selling everything from home-grown fruit and vegetables, butter, eggs and poultry, turned wooden ware and other domestic items, baskets, clothing and tools for farm use. Like those stallholders seen in the photograph of Frome's marketplace, some had stall covered by canopies, other's open, whilst some simply spread their wares out on the ground at the base of the market cross. besides the market's regular attenders, there were also itinerant hawkers who travelled between markets, often covering many miles in the process, to sell their stock, a miscellany of many items such as bridles, padlocks, cheap crockery and song sheets. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the variety of items for sale had started to dwindle as more and more of the market's non-perishable products were being offered for sale in the increasing number of shops. As a result, markets came to be dominated by those who sold home-produced foods.<P>See Brown, J., <I>The English market town: a social and economic history 1750-1914</I>, 1986.<P>P DX368 PH2/8/38</SPAN></SPAN></P></DIV>
