Romford Market history

It's strange to think that Romford market once depended on the stamina of sheep. But in the 13th century, the distance they could walk in a day was a crucial factor in deciding whether Romford was entitled to hold a market.

Therefore two leagues, or six miles, were reckoned to be the maximum distance of a one-day sheep drive. Since there was no other market within that distance, King Henry III (1242-1247) granted Romford permission to hold one every Wednesday as an outlet for the Hornchurch leather trade.

That six-mile marker remains the minimum distance between markets. It is the legal bedrock on which Romford has successfully fought off the setting up of other markets.

Today Romford Market sets up shop on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday each week, though other days have been tried over the centuries.

A Tuesday market was established by 1633, and a Monday market around the late 18th century, but this was doomed to failure and discontinued shortly before 1816. A similar fate fell to the Tuesday market in the 19th century.

In a spirit of optimism perhaps engendered by the end of the Great War, traders tried a daily market in 1919, but this idea was dropped in 1925, leaving the three markets that we know today.