FOLLOWING the article and letters about York Market being situated in Parliament Street, I am sure many of the citizens of York can remember when the market took up the length and breadth of Parliament Street including St Sampson's Square.

To run the market in those days was very labour intensive as all the stalls had to be erected on Friday to be ready for the traders to set out their stalls early on Saturday. Selling could not start before the market bell was rung; this also applied at the end of market time.

At the end of each market day when the stallholders had left there was a great deal of clearing up to be done.

All the stalls had to be dismantled. The tarpaulin sheets for the roofs of the stalls went first, followed by the counter boards and finally the heavy metal frames. These were stored in a building at the corner of Newgate and Silver Street.

Then the council workmen would arrive to clear away the tons of rubbish left. All of Parliament Street would then be swept by hand before being washed down by horse-drawn water carts.

All this work had to be done before Sunday morning, if not, then the men would have to turn out at 6.30am on Sunday to complete the task. It should also be noted that all areas of the city apart from the centre were swept regularly by the corporation cleansing department with inspectors checking to see that the work was carried out in a satisfactory way. It was the responsibility of shops to sweep their shop fronts daily.

It seems that progress has done away with having pride in the city, let alone the cost.

Peter A Jackson,

Elma Grove,

Shipton Road,

York.

Updated: 09:43 Saturday, May 07, 2005