Rayleigh

                           Through the Looking Glass

October 2011 Update - The Market

Previous Updates

Rayleigh Market is to be relocated to the middle of the High Street  later in the Autumn to the area known

as the Lagoon . (see picture below)

When the market is taking place taxis will drop off by the Crown/Lloyds Bank and pick up by the Millennium Clock.

The move is initially for a six month period and after further public consultation will hopefully become permanent

Go and see for yourself.

The Lagoon  in  2009 following a burst pipe.

(The area is not usually flooded!)

The Origins of Rayleigh Market & Early History

The earliest date recorded for the market is 1181 in the reign of King Henry II.

The word used is ‘prescriptive’ meaning ‘sanctioned or authorised by longstanding custom or usage' and

therefore indicates that it could have existed  considerably earlier.

Rayleigh is 1181 was the escheated land (property that has reverted to the state when no legal heirs or claimant exists)

of Henry De Essex, part of the Honor of Rayleigh.

On 18th  February 1227 King Henry III granted Hubert de Burgh (Earl of Kent) and his wife Margaret unspecified markets at 3 manors, including Rayleigh.. This was reconfirmed by Henry III on 28th  November 1228.

In April 1248 and January 1249 the Countess of Kent alleged that her market of Rayleigh was being damaged

by the market at Prittlewell.

The National Archives also state  that

‘Many markets were flourishing before the date of the earliest surviving records. They were either held by virtue

of a specific royal grant, usually embodied in a charter  or by prescriptive right based on an immemorial custom’.

Market traders in High Street circa 1890’s

Advert for Market from 1961

Market Place 1960’s

Map  of Essex showing Markets & Fairs