« Market Day, Spalding, Lincolnshire, 1900 »
Monday, June 15, 2009 at 9:04PM 
The Google maps for Spalding lead me to think this busy marketplace is the wide triangular square called Sheep Market looking toward The Crescent. It is certain that most of the business, attractions and socializing is engaged in by men; only one woman is in this scene with her bicycle.
There is something of special interest that has the attention of a crowd of men facing Greenall Furniture Depot and Cabinet Works – perhaps an auction or demonstration. To its right is the Black Swan which advertises Billiards & Pool; to the left, where Swan Street intersects, is Talbot's Cash Drug Stores (A. H. Molson, Proprietor) featuring Cheap Prices; a sign for Motors (meaning automobiles?) points down Swan Street; Beales Photographer has two painted signs that appear to say Picture Maker (some specific product or process?); the building at the far end of the square is Arthur Beales, Motors and Cycles, again, does that mean autos, and are the cycles pedal or motor? One man on the left wears the duster that came into fashion in the early days of motoring (still a common term in the UK), so perhaps Motors was shorthand for motorcar after the turn of the century. Finally, a man with a sandwich board directs potential customers to Freeman, Hardy & Willis Boots and Shoes at Hall Place and Market Place, a street behind where this photographer was standing.
Spalding was a named place as early as 1000; a Benedictine Priory was founded by Thorold de Bokenhale in 1051 and the town was recorded as Spallinge in the Domesday Book in 1086. By the time of this photo the population was 9,000 and it was an agricultural center with a Butter Market and Corn Exchange which opened in the latter half of the 19th century.
This image was scanned from a 4" x 5" glass negative.
Reader Comments (3)
The photo of spalding market day 1900 is not in the sheep market as you speculate but in New Road. At that time the weekly cattle market was held in New Road hence the mess on the road in the foreground of the picture. I well remember as a little girl in the 50s Molsons chemist and the Black Swan. There was a furniture shop between but I don't think it was Greenhalls by that time. Sorry can't remember.
Pedal cycles and motor cycles!
Arthur Beales also had another shop locally, image from around the same era. Hope you don't mind my adding yours to the group with accreditation.
Nice to link the two together.
www.flickr.com/photos/8728562@N06/14663501656/in/photostream/
Hi! I am currently engaged in a research project seeking out historical images of Spalding to used as a reference point for potential artists to respond to within a brief for a public commission. Would you please confirm that my employers (Transported Art of Holbeach St Marks, Lincolnshire) can use this image for such a purpose? Kind Regards