Kirkby Malzeard & Laverton

Granting of the Market Charter

Kirkby Malzeard gained a Market Charter from King Edward l in 1307, granting a market every Monday, and a Fair on the eve, the day and the morrow of the Feast of the Nativity of St Mary. Also the eve, the day and the morrow of St Nicholas. In medieval times this was September 7th-9th and September 28th-30th. Once this Charter was granted, Kirkby became a considerable market centre for a wide area, and Ripon was concerned that it could affect their markets, and tried to stop them. The Market lapsed early in the 19th century and an attempt to revive it in 1824 failed. More recently the Boy Scouts and Cubs tried to have a market on Whit Monday, but this didn’t last long. By the end of the last century the Fairs were held on Whit Monday and October 2nd, and later on October 2nd and 3rd and known as ‘Kirkby Feast’. A memory from a Mrs G. Blackburn recalls that ‘On the Friday night before the Fair the Bellman went round announcing that there would be a Parish Meeting to let the sheep pens on the cobbles along Main Street – they stretched right up to the end of the grass. Sheep and a few horses were sold, and there were stalls in front of the Queens and in front of the Police Station till you could only just get by. There were sports in the field where the new school is, and swing-boats in front of the Almshouses. Grewelthorpe Feast was in September, Kirkby in October and Laverton on October 4th – but this was just roundabouts’.