Saturday Market, Beverley - East Yorkshire

In the Middle Ages there were weekly markets in Beverley. There were also 3 annual fairs. Fairs were like markets but they were held only once a year and buyers and sellers would come from all over Northeast England to attend. Originally the market was held in the south of the town, in a large triangular piece of land by the Minster between Eastgate and Highgate. Gradually shops and other buildings were erected on this market place and it shrunk in size. The market continued to be held there but it became known as the Wednesday Market.

In the 12th century a new market place was built north of the town. It became known as Saturday Market. A chapel dedicated to St Mary was built there and in 1269 it became a parish church. The Archbishop of York was Lord of the Manor of Beverley and he had the right to charge tolls on stallholders in the markets. Toll Gavel may have been the place where tolls were charged.



Narrow Racket is an alley that runs from Lairgate, to Saturday Market. Its original name was most probably Narrow Lane, first recorded in 1409, that ran between the High Street (which then comprised North Bar Within, Saturday Market, Toll Gavel, Butcher Row and Wednesday Market) and Lairgate.

According to The Yorkshire Palette: A racket is an open expanse between passages so called perhaps because these were the haunts of the unsavoury, the unscrupulous, the down right drudge of society that carried out their dodgy deals and “rackets” in these areas.