Saturday Shopping

A Memory of Mansfield.

I remember going to Grandma's on Saturdays - we would walk from her house along Westfield Lane down Westgate on to the Buttermarket. I would love the hand made sweet stall and take ages spending my pennies, perhaps the fruit rock or the little fishes or the coconut mushrooms or cough candy - you could have as much or as little as you could afford. On this market there was a hot pea stall cooked on hot coals - this was a busy stall. On the big market they sold wet fish on one corner - very smelly, and then there was the fruit and veg stalls all run by families; the Troops and the Crowders and many more all competed against each other to see who could call the loudest to get attention for their stalls - it was very noisy! At the other end of the market were the butchers - equally vocal - Jeff Webster having a bit of banter with the housewives as they queued up. This was all out in the open air, the stalls were covered with canvas to protect them from the elements. I loved the old man with the roundabout; he turned the handle each time to make it go round - I loved the big red bus upstairs, but there was a fire engine, a motor bike, a plane ect.

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