Page 19 - Market Times August 2021
P. 19

FEATURE • LITTLEHAMPTON 19
  With a unique mix of old-fashioned charm and some standout characters, Littlehampton Market on the south coast is ready to celebrate its tenth anniversary on the High Street. Nicola Gould takes a step back in time
Turn back the clocks and roll back the years. Littlehampton market, which takes centre stage on the paved High Street of this seaside resort every Friday, has the old-fashioned charm of a bygone age of market trading.
There’s no artisan bread or high-end crafts, but the traders set up stall with a smile on their faces. The atmosphere is warm and friendly, and the characters are huge.
There is Pablo the Bling selling bright, shiny bling that would attract a flock of magpies. Sam the SWAG man who could talk the hind legs off a donkey. Alf who is still selling fashion at 83 and Terry the palmist, aged 85, who has travelled the world and read the palms of celebrities such as Diana Ross. Not to be left out, there is “shoeshine boy” David, a published author and poet, who will polish your shoes on the market for £1 a pop.
All these characters and more make for a bustling, lively market which will celebrate its tenth anniversary on the High Street in October.
Market operator Colin Cashin, who runs the market, says it is full, rain or shine, winter or summer, and has done consistently well since it was moved from a car park on to the pedestrianised High Street.
Although Colin has never been a trader, he has helped run markets across the south after joining Bray’s, a long-established market operator, in his early 20s.
“I had been working as a driving instructor before and I took to markets like a duck to water,” said Colin, who has been involved in running markets from Gillingham in Kent to Didcot in Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes and across the south west.
He set up Littlehampton market on the car park that was its first home. Then there was a parting with Bray’s and it was agreed that Colin would continue to run Littlehampton.
It was struggling on the car park but relocated to the High Street after shop- keepers requested the move to improve footfall. Sure enough, the market took off and the boost to footfall every Friday has
helped the town.
“We have 30 pitches on the High Street,
which is wide enough to take the market, and gets the main retail footfall in the town,” said Colin, who believes the success of markets is down to location, location, location.
 Colin Cashin has run Littlehampton Market for the past decade
t



















































































   17   18   19   20   21