The winner of the Beverley Market Best Dressed Stall 2015 competition – held on Saturday 12 December – has been chosen. The winner was Lisa Gray of Little Cheese Pantry.
This year, the winners of this annual competition have been presented with the first annual Allan Gorbutt Cup, in memory of Allan, one of the market’s longest serving stallholders, who died in September.
Allan, from Beverley, had worked on Beverley Market since he was an 11-year-old Saturday boy. He set up his own shoe stall when he was 19, and for the next 48 years he became one of the town’s best-known stallholders.
Richard Lascelles, markets officer at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “We all miss Allan because after 48 years he became part of the fabric of the market.
“Not only does this trophy in his honour show how well liked and respected Allan was on the market, but it will be given out for years to come, so he will be remembered.”
The council and the Beverley branch of the National Market Traders’ Federation also held a children’s art competition on the same day, with children from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 from Beverley Minster School displaying their artwork on a stall, with a prize for the winner. The winners were Anya Steventon and Mary O’Loughlin-Gardiner.
The market dates back centuries and is one of the most popular in Yorkshire. There will be a special Christmas Eve Market on Thursday 24 December, from 9am to 2pm – the final market of the year – giving shoppers a last-minute chance to buy presents, food and drink. The market will then return on Saturday 2 January, 2016.
Beverley Market is held on Saturdays and Wednesdays throughout the year, and currently has 129 stalls on Saturdays, with traders from the local area and others coming as far afield as Manchester, Nottingham and Lincolnshire.
