he or she shall be immediately charged according to the figure on the
seat."
The Salt Market was held in the parish of St. Nicholas. At a parish
meeting in 1792 it was agreed "That whereas there is a stage erected
before the Salt Market, to the great prejudice and forestalling of
the p'ish tenants, who pay considerable rents to the use of the poor
of St. Nicholas, that all and every person," &c., should be proceeded
against as counsel should advise. The site of the Salt Market was what
is now the garden in front of the rectory house, close by the church.
There was a stonemason's yard behind, and in the rear of that yard was
a house which, by the addition of a new front, has been converted into
the present rectory. Mr. Young, who is now living at the age of about
eighty-three, informs me that he can recollect a man regularly selling
salt at a small open shop or stall on the site in question. Three or
four centuries ago the Salt Market was at "the well of Allhallow,"
near All Saints' church. In 1692 the parishioners were "p'sented for
ye repaire of the way from Foregate to the Pound, in St. Martin's,
lying near the town ditch," which had hitherto been repaired by the
inhabitants living there, or else by the chamberlain of the city, the
churchwardens therefore were instructed to litigate the point, and no
further entry occurs on the subject. There was also much disputation
about some property in the Butts, and at length "Wm. Lygon, Esq.,
John Price, chancellor, James Nash, of Martley, gentleman, and John
Appletree, Esq., were requested to be arbitrators for the parish in a
matter between ye p'ishioners and Mary Solley, widow, concerning the
retakeing of the gravel butts and setting forth ye said butts and ye
boundaries thereof." In 1770 a lease of "the rector's ten tenements at
the bottom of Gaol Lane" was granted for fifty years, at a rental of
£21. 10s., for a workhouse. This Gaol Lane was the present Nicholas
Street, where also were several almshouses, repaired by the parish. The
lane led to the old city gaol, which was situate on the site of the
gardens and property now belonging to the Avenue House (Mr. Powell's)
and cottages adjacent in Trinity Gardens. The entrance to the old gaol
was near the premises in St. Nicholas Street, till recently occupied
as a savings-bank. St. Nicholas Street--now the principal thoroughfare
to and from the railway station--was at that time no street at all,
there being no outlet to Lowesmoor except for foot passengers, who had
to go through a narrow entry with turnstile. A public house called the
Dolphin stretched across the street from the present police station
to the point where Mr. Finch's house now stands, and the entry was
at the left of that public house, close adjoining Mr. Finch's. The
last house which then stood in the lane is still in existence, being
occupied by a broker. Its old doorway and timbers speak for themselves.
Mr. Finch's premises were then a workshop and timber-yard belonging
to a Mr.
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