Bury Market

If you’ve never seen it before, it’s easy to miss Bury Market. You think you walk through Millgate Shopping Centre …then no. This is a market as imagined in an opera—stall after stall, one on another, goods heaped up, out of your head it fits the space. Which is large—easy to spend an hour to an afternoon, lost. There’s a touch of the circus, “World Famous!”, “Voted Best Market in England!”, etc. Showmen (but this is Lancashire) could bark that people travel from miles around, because they do. The market has never been improved (‘market style’ stalls), thank goodness, and some genius, maybe from a knowledge of Northern weather, installed roof over the walkways. There are downsides; the busy mundane is no place for artefacts, antiques, or curiosities—though some of the food is outstanding. Also, Bury Market starts busy and ends rammed. But a day out it is, and after that, Bury is a town, with much else to visit including museums, galleries and the historic railway. But the market would be a draw if it stood in a field,