Market Street

Market Street was opened in 1887 by the Ledbury Markets and Fairs Company. It served the new, purpose-built cattle market and was accessed from both New Street and Bye Street. it is still a private, unadopted road. When the Cattle Market was closed in 1999 the market site was sold and later developed for a new health centre and doctor's surgery. While this work was going on, archaeologists maintained a watching brief on the site, as it was at the core of centuries-old marketing activity in Ledbury. Marches Archaeology reported on five evaluation trenches that were dug ‘to investigate the possible presence of medieval deposits in the area currently occupied by the Cattle Market. They were positioned to test both the Bye and New Street frontages, their respective backlands and the central portion of the site. Medieval features were seen in both the backland trenches and on the Bye Street frontage. The central area of the site produced what appeared to be a medieval agricultural soil layer. Only the trench on the New Street frontage failed to produce medieval finds but the area here had been cleaned down for the construction of Market Street.’  Another report from Marches Archaeology in 2002 recorded that ‘archaeological features were almost exclusively found on the Bye Street frontage and the associated backlands. Pottery from the site suggests that late prehistoric and Roman activity took place somewhere within the vicinity of the site, but no prehistoric or Roman features were found, the earliest dating to the 12th and 13th centuries. In the 14th and 15th centuries both sides of Bye street were built up; the backlands on the S. side of Bye Street being used for domestic or commercial use. In the 17th century the backlands were no longer being used for the same purpose; by this time the land was being used for horticulture, possibly as orchards as the land was later used in the 18th and 19th centuries. A brook recorded on a map of 1788 shown running along the middle of Bye street was culverted in the early 19th century. Sources: Transactions Woolhope Naturalists Field Club (TWNFC) XLIX 19999 p. 446; TWNFC  L (2002) p. 393  Appleton-Fox, N., The Cattle Market, Ledbury, Herefordshire: a Report on an archaeological evaluation, Marches Archaeology Series 100.  Nash, A., Wainwright, J., and Appleton-Fox, N., Marches Archaeology Series 254. Buildings on Market Street include: Ledbury Market Theatre Ledbury Community Health and Care Centre