The Market and Blacksmith

Just off the High Street, every Saturday, there was (and I think still is) an open air market. This could be quite a large affair, with stalls and vans selling clothes, household goods, toys, food and tools. It was a magnet for the area and the market itself, a rectangular patch of land reached through a narrower entrance, was often jam-packed. When the market was on the local pubs: Plough, White Hart and George and Dragon, would be busy at lunchtime and many vehicles parked in pub carparks, in front of the Odeon cinema and along both sides of the road by the park and the High Street (this was an era well before yellow lines and breathalyzers). The old police station, in the same place as now but then very Dixon-of-Dock-Greenish with its steps to the front, wooden sash windows right onto the street and a blue police lamp above the door, was very close by. The market was especially busy in the run-up to christmas, when the entrance would be full of christmas trees, and also at fair times.

The same venue was also used on Wednesdays for horse dealing. Again the road outside would be full of vehicles each side and up beyond the park gate, but this time they were horse-boxes and other trailers. For most locals this was an 'outside' affair, since there were very few locally owned or stabled horses, but we were all familiar with it and with the sight and sound of horses being led up and down the roads. I also remember, as a young boy in the 1950s, being taken in to see the blacksmith, who had a premises just behind the police station in North Road, not far from the market. I saw horses being shod there, remember the fire and bellows inside, steam coming off the hooves when water was poured on them and the smell of the hot metal. I think the blacksmith also did other work than shoeing horses. I have a vague memory that there was a shop for tackle on the High Street but I would need this confirmed.