Pembroke Dock Market: Relaunching this Friday after 200 years

OLD-timers will remember Pembroke Dock’s market hall bigger than it is now, and full of stalls. In fact, the market has an interesting history spanning 200 years.

In 1818 an Act of Parliament authorised the Navy Board to establish a market at Pembroke Dock. This was followed by six years of negotiation, however, as it ran counter to Pembroke’s exclusive market privileges, based on charters first established under King Henry I in the 12th century. Eventually, Pembroke Dock was obliged to pay out £3,000 in compensation.

The original marketplace, completed between 1826 and 1827, was a walled courtyard with a central weighing house. Concurrent improvements to the area around Front Street’s slipway, known as the ‘hard’, and Commercial Row meant that traders could unload their wares and transport them easily to the open market where they provided their own stalls.

The market of the 1850s is vividly described on the pembrokedockhistory.co.uk website:

“The market was so well attended that entertainers and showmen did a thriving trade around the main gate. George Mason lovingly recalled the scene and characters in Pembroke Street. At Denzy’s sweet stall, children could win sticks of rock. ‘Then John the nut man, with his uneven gun barrel, requiring a good deal of experience in aiming… Charley Lock, the razor grinder’, surrounded by boys ‘watching the sparks fly off Charley’s grindstone. Long Joe, the ballad singer, who recounted in song all the events now to be found in daily newspapers; and Manning, the wonderful witty Cheap Jack, whose mobile face and speech created everlasting laughter…’”

The regulations of that era strictly forbade dogs, smoking and drunkenness. On rainy days, meanwhile, the marketplace suffered through its lack of shelter. Shortly after the Corporation bought it in 1881, Cllr Thomas Cole suggested roofing part of the market and, following a lively debate in the Temperance Hall (where the Pater Hall now stands), the top area was roofed in 1886.

As a result, not only did trade increase greatly, but there was also now a huge hall for mass meetings, concerts and Eisteddfodau. It was a popular meeting place and a strategic place for adverts. A 1904 photograph shows the market wall adorned with a giant poster advertising Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

By 1905 the market buildings housed a council chamber, used for the magistrates’ court. During World War I, the market provided entertainments and refreshments every night for the soldiers and sailors who now filled the town.

“The market housed the fire control point from which Arthur Morris and his crews set out to tackle the blazing oil tanks at Pennar. In 1941 the Market Hall itself was damaged by blast from a bomb intended for the nearby RAF station,” adds the local history website.

In the new millennium, the whole site was renovated with the help of a heritage lottery grant. Acanthus Holden Architects were commissioned to carry out the repair of the fabric and the conversion of the building into office and workshop premises, alongside a much smaller market. The five-year project was completed in Autumn 2011.

In more recent times the market has featured a handful of traders, including a fishmonger and a fruit and veg stall, until retirement and bereavement picked off the stallholders, leaving long-established Albert Rees’ Carmarthen Deli the last stall standing.

In September, owners Chris and Ann Rees appealed for more traders to join them:

“We’d love to see more traders joining us at Pembroke Dock Market!

“The Rees family has been trading at Pembroke Dock Market for 75 years. We’ve seen it through thick and thin — from the bustling market days many will remember to the quieter times of today. Sadly, we are currently the only trader left in the market.

“But every Friday morning, from 8am until 12 noon, Carmarthen Deli is kept extremely busy by our brilliant Pembroke Dock customers. That continued support shows there is still a genuine appetite for a thriving local market, and it would be wonderful to see the building bustling with traders and customers once again.”

That wish started to be granted on October 2, when shoppers could find homemade cakes, handmade sewn items, jewellery, crystals and holistic therapies, bags, clothing and more, alongside secondhand books and the usual fresh, cooked and cured meat, eggs, cheese and honey from the market’s most enduring trader.

Irene (Handmade with Love), who lives in Pembroke, remembers travelling to the market regularly on a double decker bus. She said she learned about the opportunity to run a stall from a friend, who had seen it mentioned on Facebook, and thought it perfect for her as she offers sewing alterations as well as hand-sewn items and knitted garments.

Jamie Street and Claire Francis-Boswell, County Councillor and Town Councillor for the town’s Market Ward, have been actively campaigning for a market revival.

Councillor Claire Francis-Boswell said: “Fridays were always so different ‘back in the day’ but nostalgia doesn’t help businesses grow - people taking the time to support them does.

“The old Friday Market has enjoyed an injection of energy with focus combining Cllr Jamie Street, PCC and many others - town and county councillors working as a team.”

Councillor Jamie Street said: “This is all about rebuilding the market into a busy, vibrant place for local traders, small businesses and the community – and the best way to make it a success is to get behind those taking part.”

Jamie added that there are art-related plans in the pipeline for the hall next door - formerly Y Gegin Food Hall and latterly the Pembrokeshire Gin Co. venue.

He also said: “A huge thank you must go to Albert Rees Butchers for their support and help in getting things moving.”

If you're a trader, producer, maker or local business interested in being part of it, get in touch with Jamie via Messenger or email [email protected] . Stalls cost just £8 a week, so it’s the perfect opportunity for small businesses and traders to try their hand at selling without a large financial commitment.

The Market Hall can be found at Melville Street, Pembroke Dock alongside Futureworks and opposite Randalls Restaurant.

It is so good to see the hall coming back to life, and it’s worth knowing that there is free parking available on-site and at the Heritage Centre opposite.

The onus is now on locals to keep the support going. See you this Friday at the relaunch?