Catch up on the latest episode of Made in Kent with Arthur Navarro-Allen
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00:00Hello and welcome to Made in Kent, live on KMTV.
00:24I'm Arthur Navarro-Allen and this week we're taking a look at one of the county's oldest
00:29business models, the town market. We'll be talking to some storeholders and diving into
00:35the history of markets in Kent. But first, we went to Canterbury to see people's perspectives
00:41on modern day markets.
00:43Well, I hope it has a future. I think they can be very charming. I think it's a real
00:49point of difference. It gets people into town centres or city centres. And I hope that markets
00:58will find a way of reinventing themselves so that they feel current and have a future.
01:06I do feel like it's probably going to go down, but then who knows? I feel like there might
01:11be a resurgence of people moving away from being online so much and trying to do stuff
01:17like outside in the real world.
01:19Also I think offering goods that you can't get in out of town, big shopping areas. So
01:31local produce, really important. Things made by local people. Things that would not be
01:39on offer in other places, I think is the way forward.
01:43More recently than ever, or certainly more recently than decades gone by, I think people
01:48started to like shopping in Tesco's and Sainsbury's and Morrison's. I think now it's swinging
01:54back towards market stores, independent grocers and things like that.
01:57Personally for me, yeah, it is that local aspect of people that are in the area who
02:03have handmade things or something that makes it more so unique.
02:09These people are much more into industrialisation and they are much more interested in technological
02:14things and they were not concerned about what we had in the past. They didn't give
02:20much importance of what we had in the past. Maybe that's the reason they are not that
02:24much thinking about we had these sort of things in the past. That's why.
02:29So it seems like markets are still popular amongst local communities, with many hoping
02:34they will still be a part of the landscape of Kent for some time. But now we are going
02:39to take a moment to look back at how the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 took its toll on
02:45the market scheme in the county, with impacts lasting until today.
02:50Some Kentish markets, such as Shipborne, adapted by entering the digital world, with a click
02:55and collect system akin to many larger supermarkets and online retailers. Similarly, markets like
03:02those in West Malling, Dartford and Ashford also eventually transitioned to digital platforms,
03:08enabling stallholders to continue operations and reach customers despite restrictions.
03:15Markets that could not operate online also managed to remain open during COVID, most
03:20notably Folkestone, Whitfield and Maidstone. The Kent Farmers Market Association aided
03:26heavily in these markets remaining open, allowing shoppers to pre-order or arrange deliveries
03:32through their websites.
03:34Well, now that we've had a look at how the perception and recent history of markets has
03:38changed over the last few years, let's visit one ourselves. We sent reporter Brandon Knapp
03:44to the Westgate Hall Market to see how this ancient tradition is in practice today.
03:50Despite being out of the way of the high street, this has not stopped Westgate Hall Market
03:54from flourishing, with hundreds of customers visiting each month.
03:58Westgate Hall Market has been here for almost a decade, but in recent years has seen a growth
04:02in numbers. But what makes the market so personal, so popular and so important for
04:06the community?
04:07Well, we live locally in Canterbury, we're regular customers actually. My wife, she loves
04:14antiques and jewellery and stuff like that, so we come most times.
04:20This is only my second visit, and the first one was just before Christmas, which was very
04:24busy because it was Christmas, so I'm coming back in July and September and November again,
04:29so fingers crossed it is on the rise.
04:31We've been coming to the market for about eight years, since it first started. And when
04:36we first came, it was still a really lovely market, we saw local people just starting
04:42out trying new things. And we were just really interested in what different people were doing
04:48and what they were making, how they're making a living, and we used to chat to them and
04:53they were just so passionate about what they were making.
04:56This market over the years has grown because I was personally involved in saving this hall,
05:05Westgate Hall, which 10, 12 years, council wanted to demolish it and extend the car park.
05:14With its variety of homemade products on offer and its social atmosphere, the market clearly
05:18has a special place in this community. But how did it all begin, and what's in it for
05:22the future?
05:23I was here as a trader, first of all, just came once a month as one of the regular traders.
05:29I think it's fair to say that we didn't have that many stallholders at that time, it was
05:33kind of maybe dwindling a little bit. And me and a couple of other makers were talking
05:37about what we could do to inject some energy into it. And Carlos and I took over the running
05:43in order to put a bit more time into it.
05:45At the beginning, it was a bit more of a community market. It was quite relaxed, quite chill.
05:52We felt that the market could improve. And basically, another maker and myself approached
05:58the Westgate Hall and said, what about we run the market for you? So they were very
06:02happy. And in September 2023, basically, we took over. And since then, it's been going
06:09amazingly.
06:10We took it over, working really closely with the hall, which is a really great community
06:15venue, works a lot with local businesses anyway. So they were really keen for us to put a bit
06:19more energy into it. So yeah, about two years, and we've been building up the number of
06:23traders, the number of visitors over that time.
06:25We're in a bit of a world where we're very used to ordering something online and it arriving
06:31quickly for very little money, which is great. That's got its place. But I suppose our challenge
06:36is making sure that we can still showcase people who really bring their heart and soul
06:40into their business and what they make. And love goes into it. Sounds really nasty, but
06:43it really does.
06:44If you walk around today, you hear the conversations of people being surprised that people have
06:48handmade things. But that's great. We don't want to lose that.
06:51I think when we took over the market, it was a lot of people that were very old school.
06:58The market wasn't being very modern. So for us, the challenge was to rejuvenate the market,
07:05to get younger people, to get more creative people. Now the challenge that we have is
07:11we haven't got enough space because all our markets, they're fully booked. I think the
07:15future is bright. Sooner or later, all of us use Amazon, but if I can buy something
07:21from any of these guys, I know they made it and I can have a conversation with them. So
07:25I think the future for making things is good. It's very good.
07:29Since Carlos and Caroline took over Westgate Hall Market, it has seen a great rise in numbers.
07:34February is traditionally their quietest month, but last month the market saw 870 customers
07:40pass through its doors. Over the Christmas period, this number increases to well over
07:441,000. Here's hoping this number continues to grow in the future.
07:49Brandon Knapp for KMTV.
07:52And finally, Canterbury is not the only city in the county with present and historical
07:57links to the market trade. Here to talk about some of the others with me in the studio is
08:01our reporter Jake Turner. Jake, can you give us a tour of the various markets we have here
08:07in Kent?
08:08Yeah, so we can start off at Maidstone, which has kind of always been a market town in Kent.
08:15Maidstone only had gone in 1261 for markets every Thursday at Petersfield. They later
08:20moved to the High Street, which remained the marketplace until the late 19th century as
08:24well. Maidstone began to boom as an industrial and society town in the 17th and 18th century
08:32with the river providing critical transport for goods to and from London. This then meant
08:42that the river frontage was largely industrial, including warehouses along the river bank
08:49and a number of wharves for loading and unloading goods. And the remains of those can even be
08:54seen today. The accessibility of the river ports meant that various different kinds of
09:00markets were able to flourish in Maidstone, such as like corn and stone, timber, leather,
09:07and even livestock markets as well. Even to this day, the market hall has retained
09:13its regular weekly market every Tuesday and Saturday.
09:18That's very interesting. Thank you. And where are we going to next?
09:22So next is Ashford, which was granted a charter to hold a market by Henry III himself in 1243.
09:32And by the 1600s, it earned its place as an important market town. The market was held
09:38in the High Street, featuring fishmongers, corn markets, butcheries, and all of it was
09:43kind of in what is now known as the Middle Row, which is kind of like the heart of Ashford's
09:49market area. And you can still find some of the town's oldest buildings there now. By
09:55the 1780s, local farmers had begun to hold informal livestock markets there due to the
10:01town's ideal location between London, Chatham, and the Kent coast, being held in the lower
10:07High Street until 1856. And where is our last stop on our journey through
10:13Kent's markets? The last stop is the oldest running market
10:17in Kent, which is Favisham. In 1086, William the Conqueror's Doomsday Book recorded that
10:25Favisham was a rural manor with a market and two stockhouses, and it was also one of the
10:33only 42 places in England where a market had actually been recorded at the time. A charter
10:39of incorporation by Henry VIII in 1546 granted the privilege of the market three times a
10:47week and a fair in February and August, which was then later reaffirmed by James II in 1685.
10:55Another interesting fact about it though is that Favisham is also granted lots of sort
11:01of strange rights by the monarchy. One of them is actually that, which is still in place
11:06to this day, states that any new market town cannot be established within the distance
11:11it took for shepherds to take their sheep to the market in one day, which is about six
11:16miles. Favisham market has played an important part in the town's history for an estimated
11:221,000 years, hence its description as the market town of kings.
11:27Thank you so much. Well, you have been watching Made in Kent live on KMTV. There's more news
11:35made just for Kent throughout the evening. And don't forget, you can always keep up to
11:39date with the latest news across your county by logging on to kmtv.co.uk. But from me,
11:45for now, from everyone here, have a very good evening and we'll see you soon.
12:05Transcribed by https://otter.ai