Christine Broom on Newport Market

Well I used to go to the Market before I ever worked on a farm. Yes, it was very busy. It was more or less where Morrison’s is now and they had the cattle market which was quite large and sold anything in there, cattle, sheep, pigs.

Around the sides of the rings were machinery dealers such as J H Linnington, Frank Cheverton who were tractor dealers, Silcox who sold animal feed to farmers, Bibby’s, they were another firm that sold animal feed so you could go and see the Rep on the day … it was a day out.

You took your animals in the Market, you looked at other people’s animals and then you could go and do your business with the people that were there that were trading.

I remember Camp Hill Prison coming down with their cart horse and wagon on with a prisoner driving the horse and the Warder sat by his side and in the back of the open wagon would be pigs, with a net over them obviously so they didn’t jump out over. And this trusted prisoner was allowed to drive them down to Newport Market which was always on a Tuesday to unload them, and maybe even have an hour out of the Prison and then the Warder would make him drive the horse back to the Prison.