Page 43 - Market Times April 2024

FEATURE • MALTON 43
There’s good and bad news about markets in Malton. The bad news is that the regular Saturday market is struggling, but the good news is that the monthly food market which has grown to include artisan crafts is a big success story, bringing locals and visitors to the picturesque market place on the second Saturday of each month. Nicola Gould reports
When the late restaurateur Antonio Carluccio visited a food festival in the North York- shire market town of Malton, he was so impressed by the artisan food producers and the fantastic food and drink offer he declared the town “the Yorkshire capital of food”.
Naturally the marketing people spotted a golden opportunity and the sobriquet has stuck. “God’s Own County” has plenty of places that could also lay claim to the title, but it would be hard to deny Malton’s sense of entitlement. Before too long the off-the-cuff comment had become a self- fulfilling prophecy.
The town in rural Ryedale is awash with fine food. It’s not just the surrounding farms and the access to fresh fish and seafood from the Yorkshire coast. Malton has an award-winning brewery with Yorkshire Pudding beer a best seller. There are cheesemongers, a courtyard of artisan food businesses including a French patisserie, numerous restaurants and eateries, a myriad of local distillers and much more.
So, it is perhaps surprising that the only foodie enterprise that isn’t flourishing is the weekly market.
Mark Brayshaw, who heads Visit Malton, the CIC (Community Interest Company) that runs the monthly food markets and the two day food festival and Christmas market, said the reason could be that the town was so well supplied with everything from independent butchers to delis and fine food establishment, there wasn’t so much of a need for a weekly market.
Mark took up his post eight years ago after running an events company in York for 25 years. He works for the Fitzwilliam Malton Estate which dates back more than 300 years and owns around 60 per cent of the commercial and residential properties in Malton.
The estate has been investing in the town down the centuries and one of its particu- lar interests is the monthly food market and the town’s popular food festivals.
When Mark arrived on the scene, the weekly market was struggling. The monthly market had around 25 stalls and was doing better, and the two-day food festivals were
big crown pullers but were losing the estate £34,000 a year. The loss was down to the fact that the festivals were held in the large Market Place and its environs, so it was impossible to charge for admission.
Nevertheless, the events were important to the estate because they enhanced Malton as a destination.
Mark initially asked the traders what they thought should be done to improve the markets and they said they should be moved back to the Market Place from their location in front of the Milton Rooms, with some traders inside.
The relocation worked well, but the weekly market has dwindled to just a few stalls. The monthly food market, on the other hand, has thrived and ironically the pandemic gave it a boost.
“Malton has always been a service town for Ryedale where people come to buy their fresh produce and do their food shop,” Mark said. “When Covid arrived, we put a lot of effort into ensuring the rules were followed and we were getting 3,000 people shopping here on market day,” he said.
“With artisan traders it is often the case
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