Page 44 - MarketTimesDecember2014
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to boost the market and support the traders.” He regularly visits markets in the north-east to see if there are any good traders who might
agree to stand one of Richmond’s markets. The indoor market opens seven days a week, 360 days a year.
“We had a look at creating a mezzanine floor, because that works well in Durham indoor market, but the £400,000 cost was prohibitive,” he said.
Both the outdoor and indoor traders appreciate the commitment of Richmond Town Council and there is a lot of positivity both among the long established and new traders.
Carricks, a business started in 1929 by Bert Carrick, is arguably the backbone of Richmond’s charter market.
Started as a wet fish business, Bert branched
out into fruit and veg, and it remains very much a family business — or rather, a two family business, as Chris Bailes explains.
“We lived next to the Carrick family and my dad started working for Bert,” he said.
Chris started helping out on the Saturday fruit and veg stall as a boy, and he is now in charge of the stall aged 30, with his dad selling fish from Carrick’s fish trailer next door.
“This is still a really good market,” he said. “We start at 3.30 am and we can be serving our first customer on Richmond market at 6.30 in the morning. By the afternoon we are selling out and it’s a matter of shouting to sell the last of the soft fruit,” Chris added.
The good food offering was what attracted Steve Nicholson to the market where he has been selling cheese from a trailer for the
past 10 years.
Steve used to work for a global company, but
was first in the queue when redundancies were announced.
Steve had always loved cheese, and one day he was chatting to a trader at Leyburn market who had said she was going to retire.
“It just hit me that I could do this,” he said. Steve went on a cheesemaking course and launched The Cheesy Grin, which has proved a great success.
“I am learning more about cheese all the time. I sell 42 cheeses from all over the world and if someone comes and asks for a cheese they enjoyed anywhere in the world, I will do the research and see if I can source it.”
Steve is unusual in being relatively new to Richmond market. Most traders have been
  Steve Nicholson of The Cheesy Grin Company adores his new life selling cheese from all over the world on several markets in North Yorkshire. He has been a market trader for four years after taking redundancy from a global company
Elaine Willis, who is 75, has been selling the family farm eggs on the indoor market for more than 40 years
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