Blog

What’s happening with The Shambles and the Market Place?

For a while we’ve known that the Shambles, one of Hexham’s iconic buildings needs restoration and that the County Council, which owns the building, has had money set aside for this for a number of years. We are now expecting it to start at the end of May 2025. Once they have done The Shambles they start on the Market Place itself. The parking bays are going to be rearranged a bit to stop people driving into the pillars of the buildings, so the whole area will be out of bounds for the duration of the work.

There is never a good time to do this as it will be disrupt the normal operation of the market and will affect the regular traders in The Shambles like Shield Green Nurseries and the veg stall too.

We’re very pleased that we have been given permission by the Abbey to all move across the road and set up around three sides of the Abbey during the work, which is expected to be 20 weeks. Between he regular market traders and the farmers’ market ones we’ll find a way to set up but it’s likely to to cause a bit of disruption in late May and early June. We trust you’ll go with the flow!

Apple day 2024

We’re celebrating all things apple on Saturday 12 October 2024!

This wonderful fruit is such a symbol of autumn abundance that we’re giving it some extra love this weekend. And if you don’t like apple, perhaps you like apple cake, apple juice, cider or even cider vinegar? There’s poetry in the names of the apple varieties that have been developed in the UK and western Europe over the past few hundred years: Peasgood Nonsuch, Mrs Lakeman’s Seedling, Newton Wonder, Bloody Ploughman and Court du Pendu Plat are all apple varieties that you might find in a garden but very, very rarely available in a shop.

On Saturday we’ll have apple juicing by Transition Tynedale, an apple display, apple identification by Ros and all the usual great local producers. Bex from Grow Hexham is bringing apple cake to try and she shares her recipe with us here.

25th year Anniversary!

On Saturday 28 September we formally celebrate our 25th anniversary! We got started in Autumn 1999 as one of the very early farmers’ markets in the UK and it’s pretty good to be still going all these years later.

We originally got going in the big hall at the mart but moved up the the Market Place a few years later and we’ve been there ever since. In the early years we got a lot of support from Tynedale District Council and until the merger of Districts and County to become a Unitary Authority in spring 2009 TDC was responsible for putting up the stalls, a role that was taken on by the new Northumberland County Council then. In 2011 we changed to providing our own stalls and during the Covid pandemic in 2020 we moved across the road to incorporate the Abbey Flags and the area by the side of the Abbey, with the support of Hexham Abbey.

Over the years we’ve had a number of people responsible for managing the market: Cllr Anne Dale, Julie Charlton, Tamsin Beevor, the late Jo Burrill and currently Peter Samsom, and all of them have been supported by a group of volunteer directors made up of producers and customers who are responsible for the running of the non-for-profit company that underpins it all.

However, all this is only possible thanks to a great crowd of really wonderful and committed local producers and the amazing support from the local community of Hexham and the area around it. So thank you all for your very loyal support and here’s to the next 25 years!

On the celebration day on the 28th of September itself, look out for the small display of articles about the early days, our fabulous hamper raffle and the cake!

Below a couple of images from earlier years.

25th Anniversary Hamper!

On Saturday 11 May and as part of our 25th Anniversary celebrations we’ll be running a free prize draw for anyone buying at the market on the day. The prize is a great hamper of farmers’ market goodies, donated by the producers at the market. This is our way to say ‘thank you’ to all the lovely people who come to support the market, many of whom have been customers for many years and have become friends in the process. However, whether it is your first time buying at the market or you have been coming for 20 years, everyone has a chance to will the hamper, as long as you buy something from one of our producers on the day.

When you make a purchase at the market, you’ll be given a raffle ticket which you can put into a box at the special hamper stall on the Abbey Flags. You’ll need to write a contact number on the back of the ticket for us to be able to contact the lucky winner. At 1pm on Saturday 11 May, one of our directors will do the draw and we will contact the winner at the end of the market, hopefully to drop off the hamper that afternoon.

(please note, the image shown below does not necessarily show the contents of the hamper, which will be made up from donations from producers on the day)

Christmas 2023

Saturday 9 December sees the return of the very popular Hexham Christmas Market which the farmers’ market is an integral part of. There will be over 100 stalls in the Market Place, around the Abbey, in the Abbey and the Priory Buildings of the Abbey and on the Cloister lawn. To give everyone an opportunity to get round them all we’ll be there from 9am until 3pm (indoor stalls from 9.30 onwards) which is a little longer than usual.

We’re delighted to have a full complement of stalls with the very welcome return of Ian Nixon from Spicy Monkey and Francesca Lawson from Lovesome Oil. We can look forward to the absolutely delicious stollen slices from Bread and Roses bakery, brilliant gifts from the likes of the Durham Soap Company, Tim Foxall Spatulas or the cacao bars from Vicky at Meraki Cacao. You can fill your festive table with great food from lots of local producers so look no further for your beef, lamb and pork, cheeses, cakes, jams and chutneys, charcuterie or fermented goods like kimchi and sauerkraut (maybe a good idea to add in for the festive period). For drinks check out Muckle Brewery for a beer for every palette, a great variety of meads from Northumberland Honey and Mead or traditional cider and apple wine from J&R Armitage- you’ll find the latter on the Cloister Lawn by the Abbey. The full list of producers at the farmers’ market part of the Christmas event is here.

800 years of markets in Hexham

On Saturday 24 September we celebrate the fact that Hexham received its Market Charter 800 years ago. We’re proud to be part of that very long tradition.

On the day we will be visited by time travellers from those 800 years, going from the raid on Hexham by William Wallace in 1279, past the Hexham Riots in 1761 to people from the slightly more recent past. It will be an interesting day and we hope you’ll come and share it with us and Hexham Town Council, which is responsible for organising the event. The event is expected to start at 12.22!

Load More