Page 15 - Market Times April 2022
P. 15

FEATURE • HALIFAX
15
   Julie and Stephen Dorsey have run a butchers stall on the market for the past 42 years
Helen Sutcliffe helps run borough market’s famous Toffee Smith’s stall with her husband Sean. The old fashioned sweet shop which manufactures its own products has been selling sweets to ge- erations of children ever since it opened in 1900
offer,” he said.
When they got home to Yorkshire, Di
tried her hand at making a few different pies for friends and families.
Soon she was selling them in a little café near their home and one thing led to another.
“We started with one small bain-marie and now we are standing four different markets and we have opened a stall in borough market six days a week,” said Colin.
Diverse new businesses are creating more interest among market shoppers and fit well alongside the established traditional market business.
Carol said: “We have five traditional butchers, fruit and veg, Grosvenor’s meats, pies, sandwiches and cakes, homewares, leather bags, an underwear and ladies nighties stall, a threading and waxing
service, two e-cigarette stalls and two mobile phone shops and plenty of cafés.
The impressive florists is run by the daughter of the fruit and veg man. Philip Crossley agreed to help his dad out one Saturday in 1966 and never left. His daughter gained a degree in English and a masters in Business but got hooked on market trading.
Many of the traditional businesses have been on the market for decades. Stephen and Julie have been running their butchers stall on the market for the past 42 years. Stephen took it over after serving his apprentice on another butchers stall 49 years ago.
“A lot has changed,” Julie said. “In the old days if you weren’t set up by seven on a Saturday you couldn’t catch up — the queues of customers were so long.”
They now offer a diverse range of
products including prepared stir fries and many different types of sausage — in the old days there were just beef, pork and tomato.
One of the oldest businesses on the market is Toffee Smith’s, now run by Helen Sutcliffe and her husband, Sean.
Started in 1900 when Walter “Toffee” Smith started selling penny toffees to the miners, the stall is famous in Halifax and beyond and is much loved by generations of local children who have enjoyed the old-fashioned sweets made in the stall’s own unit in nearby Heckmondwike.
Helen said: “We took over the business in January 2019 from friends who had run it for 48 years.”
Sean, who used to work as a printer, has taken over as chairman of the tenants’ association and the couple are enjoying their new life on the market.
“Traders did get a lot of support during the pandemic and it is good to see that the council is now starting to run more events in the market which is bringing in more people,” Helen said.
Carol said the improvements to the market and initiatives like Albany Arcade food court and a programme of events were starting to bring new, younger people into the market.
She won’t be around to help develop the new initiatives as she has just retired, but no doubt she will call in from time to time to check that the market and its family of traders are flourishing.
 FACTS & FIGURES
l Market Days: Mondays to Saturdays
l Market Rent: £23.50 per square foot per annum, plus a tenants’ association
fee and a service charge
l Halifax’s claim to fame: The minster town of Halifax in Calderdale in West Yorkshire is best known as the home to the Halifax Building Society and for its past glory as an economic powerhouse for the old West Riding through its wool, cotton and carpet industries, most of which have now disappeared. In 1938 it was the scene of mass hysteria when Scotland Yard was called in to investigate a serial killer named the Halifax Slasher, only to discover there had been no deaths or injuries but a number of locals had inflicted injuries on themselves.
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