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The Wheel
THE STORY OF RADSTOCK MARKET HALL The story of Radstock Market begins with a local
man called Moses Horler. Moses was born at Roundhill, Bath Old Road, Radstock in 1818. He was a stone mason, devout Methodist, and Sunday school teacher and he wrote and published his “Recollections” in 1900. Working class biographies are scarce, and so his recollections contain important memories about working class life in Radstock. In his recollections, Moses mentions a meat waggon arriving at the market in 1847 and this is the first known reference of a market in Radstock. In 1848, brewers George Coombes and his brother Joseph Combes, moved from Camerton to run the Bell Inn, Radstock (which is the stone building, now flats, to the left of the museum) and The Lamb Inn, Clandown. They grew their brewing business producing Clandown Bitter sold widely across the West Country and even into Wales. The brewery was housed in the square red-brick building that still stands today behind Radstock Museum. It was a tower brewery, whereby there were several floors starting on the top floor, with a different process taking place on each descending floor producing the beer. The Coombes brothers then took on the Waldergrave Inn (Now Radstock Hotel and Bars)
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and matured their beer for 2-3 years in the cellars beneath the inn. Their company name was Coombs’ Clandown & Radstock Breweries & Hotels Co. Ltd. The Coombs family owned the land on which the market took place. In1872, a trade directory refers to the market as “well provided with produce from the surrounding country” and by 1880, there was a collection of shed-like structures forming an enclosure within the Bell Inn area which formed a more permanent outside market. These structures sat in a yard with a low wall around the perimeter topped with railings. The market took place on Saturdays and was popular, with not only Radstock people, but folks from all the surrounding villages, who would travel into Radstock to shop at the market. As well as a Saturday market, there was a Wednesday livestock market in Waterloo Road Radstock, both sites being owned by the Coombs family since 1848. The market was of course the place where the local mining families would buy their provisions. Early on a Saturday the gang leader of each team of miners would collect the weekly wages from the office on Frome Road. The gang leaders would then go into the Bell or the Waldergrave Inn to distribute the wages to their gang members.
