Waitresses at the Tenant Street teashop in 1947, from left, Joan (then Sharman), Sheila Blore and Ivy Flint

Tenant Street. The teashop was in the left-hand block

Charlie and Joan Collins on their wedding day in 1948

Minnie, the loyal washer-upper at the Tenant Street teashop

Joan (back right) on holiday at Butlin’s in Filey with her friends from the teashop – Hilda Thorpe (back left), Ivy Flint (front left) and Joyce Briggs

With the opening of Derby’s new Westfield shopping centre in the autumn, the city’s market traders are hoping their loyal customers will not forget them. Pat Parkin has been talking to some of the traders, including one whose family – six generations of them – has been running a stall in the Market Hall since it opened in 1868.

Despite some irritation at the Westfield company dropping the old Eagle Centre name in favour of their own, many Derby people have great expectations of the new shopping mall opening in the autumn.

It promises bigger stores, new fashion outlets, lots of choice, comfort from the outside elements and plenty of places to eat. And it is what Derby has needed for a long, long time to stop the drift of shoppers to Nottingham, Birmingham and Sheffield’s Meadowhall.

It will certainly add a new dimension to shopping. However, what it is unlikely to have are the individual traders who for years have offered personal attention and service, have a vast experience of the area and know many of their customers by name.

Nowhere in Derby can more such independent traders be found under one roof than the Market Hall. Gathered there, six days a week, in a Grade II listed building, are no less than 70 stalls specialising in all sorts of trades, from the trendy to the traditional.

Many of them are second, third and, in one case, sixth generation family businesses. The stalls range from greengrocers, butchers, bakers, grocers, watchmakers and hardware to clothing, fabrics, shoes, jewellery, electrical, newspapers, books, pictures, shoe repairers, bedding, household linen, antiques and flowers. You name it, you will almost certainly find it in Derby Market Hall.

As Kath Jackson, spokesperson for the Traders’ Association, says: “You wouldn’t find a wider choice anywhere. We are mainly small, independent retailers who specialise and know our business inside and out.

“Some families have served the Derby public for generations and everyone here is committed to continuing that. “We welcome the Westfield Centre but we don’t want to be forgotten.

“The Derby shopping public has supported us for years and we know they appreciate what we have to offer. “We need them to remember that the old can work very well alongside the new, and with it bring the vast choices everyone needs to have when they are shopping.”

The oldest stall of all in the Market Hall is Poynton’s the newsagents, which has been delivering the news to Derby people for almost 160 years.

The dynasty began when Irishman Patrick Poynton opened a newsagent’s shop in Brook Street, in 1848. Twenty years later, when the new Market Hall opened alongside Derby Market Place, he decided to spread his wings and open a stall there.

Six generations on, his great-great-great grandson, Richard Poynton, 26, now helps his father, Andrew, to keep the news coming, both in the Market Hall and at their other outlet in Sadler Gate.

Said Andrew, 60, of Quarndon: “Our family have been here from day one in 1868, when the Market Hall opened and every one of us, who has worked here, has loved it.

“Business is still brisk and we pride ourselves on giving a very personal service. Westfield is bound to make a difference to a lot of traders but I can’t see many smaller shops going up there because of the costs and the regulations which insist all traders must open long hours, seven days a week, which could be a problem for small family businesses.”

To Derby shoppers, one of the best-known faces on the stall would have been Andrew’s father, Harry Poynton, who worked there for 67 years from 1929 until the day he died, aged 83, in 1994.

His father, Joseph, did the same before him, starting at the age of 12, refusing to retire and working every day until he died in 1960.

Said Andrew: “The Poyntons are part of the Market Hall’s history and we hope to be here for a long time yet.” Mere youngsters by comparison but still a long-serving family concern on the market is Mecca the jewellers, now run by Linda Aston, the third generation of her family there.

The business was begun by her grandfather, Michael Doyle, who opened it selling and repairing watches and jewellery in 1925. He was helped by her grandmother and her dad, also Michael, who began work there at 14.

Sixty-eight years later, now 82, hardly a day goes by that young Michael isn’t at the stall helping out and chatting to the regular customers.

Said Linda, who is chairman of the Traders’ Association: “Like so many of the others in the Market Hall, it is an important part of his life, and mine, too. We get lots of people coming here to buy and others who have bought watches or bracelets elsewhere, and then need to have them altered.

“We pride ourselves on being experts at making things fit and offering a good, personal service.”

One of Derby’s best-known greengrocers, who is now trading in the Market Hall, is Teddy Corden whose family started in business with a stall under an arch in Abbey Street.

He eventually became best known for the shop he ran for 39 years in Sadler Gate, when it was a busy food shopping thoroughfare until habits changed and people shopped at supermarkets with plastic money.

When he closed down, he moved into the Market Hall nine years ago.

“I enjoy it there,” he said. “I’ve got my son, Robert, working with me, so the business is carrying on. “It’s a nice centre and people like the personal service and individuality of being served. It would be very sad if it closed down.

“We have lots of old customers who still come here. I feel sure the Market Hall will survive alongside the new facilities.”

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