Thirsk Market

Thirsk holds a traditional charter market on the cobbled square every Monday and Saturday, and the square is what makes it. By local reckoning it is one of the larger cobbled market places in this part of Yorkshire, and on a market day it fills with produce, plants, household goods and clothing stalls laid out around the Thirsk Clock. It costs nothing to walk through. If you are staying in town and can pick your days, pick one of these two, because the difference between Thirsk on a market day and Thirsk on a Wednesday is the difference between a town at work and a town having a quiet one.

You do not really have to get anywhere. Tea Time Cafe is at 87 Market Place, and the stalls set up on the square directly outside. Step out of the door and you are in it.

Coming in by car is the only part that needs thought. The first hour on the Market Place is free, but the parking fills early on market days because the stalls take up part of the square, so aim to arrive before 9am or use Marage Road instead. From Thirsk station it is a flat walk of about half an hour, or a taxi; the rank is by the clock on the square rather than at the station.

Walk the whole square once before you buy anything. The stalls change week to week and the run of produce, plants, household stalls and clothing rails is worth seeing in full before you commit to the first thing you like.

Then work outwards. The Thirsk Clock is the landmark everyone photographs, and the charity and independent shops around the edge of the square turn a market morning into a proper browse. Half an hour to three quarters covers the market itself at a comfortable pace. Longer if you talk to the traders, which is rather the point of a market like this one.

The setting does most of the work. Cobbles, the clock, the shops around three sides and the stalls filling the middle add up to something a modern precinct cannot reproduce. The mix is the other strength, because this is a working market where locals shop rather than a visitor attraction with a market theme. And it is one of the few things on a Thirsk itinerary that is free, outdoors, dog-friendly and needs no booking at all.

Come on a Monday or a Saturday, or you will find an empty square and a car park. Get there in the morning, since traders start packing away through the afternoon and the hours are not formally published anywhere we could confirm. If the market is the reason for your trip, check with Thirsk Town Council before you travel rather than relying on a listing site. Park before 9am or expect to walk in from Marage Road. Cobbles are uneven in patches, so anyone with a pushchair or unsteady on their feet should keep to the smoother edges. And if the weather turns, the indoor shops and the Rural Arts gallery on Westgate are the obvious fallback five minutes away.