A market at Stockton on Tees can trace its history back to the early 1300’s, when the then Bishop of Durham granted a Market Charter; “to our town of Stockton a market upon every Wednesday forever”, back then there was a castle in Stockton, sitting near enough where the Swallow Hotel and Castlegate Centre car park is.

The bishops and their underlings in the castle at the time would’ve taken tolls not only from the market sellers but from any goods which were brought into the town. Unlike the present market livestock would also be sold. That was until 1875 when the cattle market was moo-ved (get it?) to the site of the present day library finally closing in 1959.

The market has undergone a lot of changes over the years, mainly to its placement in the high street, and there are set perhaps to be more changes.
Soon the Castlegate Centre will be demolished in a bold and ambitious plan to open up the high street to the riverside known as “Stockton Waterfront”.
This also means creating a tunnel for the road which currently runs through adjacent to the river.