AN ‘ANCIENT’ market in a north Shropshire town is being given a new lease of life by opening twice a week.

Starting from Thursday, September 7, traders in Ellesmere will be welcoming shoppers on Thursdays as well as Tuesdays at the 800-year-old market in Scotland Street.

It forms part of an ambitious plan to improve footfall following the launch of a new company to run the market hall.

A new community interest company (CIC), Project SY12, has taken over the running of the hall from the previous operator Altogether Ellesmere, which had been running for 12 years.

The CIC has a new board of directors, including local business and council representatives, led by 28-year-old Alex Hunter who runs his own events management company.

“Our aim is to put Ellesmere back on the map as a market town,” said Alex.

OTHER NEWS:

“Since taking over, we’ve already extended the opening hours of the Tuesday market so that we close at 2pm instead of midday.

“This has produced a slow, but steady growth in business, and now we want to expand and take things a step forward by opening the market on Thursdays, too, with some new traders, as well as some who are already here on Tuesdays.”

Sixteen stalls were due to open on Thursday (September 7), with eight traders coming from Oswestry market and others from elsewhere.

“For the Oswestry traders, it helps them to fill the gap between having their stalls there on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays,” Alex explained.

“We’ll have a wide variety of goods on offer, so we hope people will take the opportunity to come in and buy.”

Want to stay up to date with all the latest stories from Whitchurch and the surrounding area? Click here to sign up for our morning and daily email newsletters and click on the + for the 'Morning Briefing' and the 'Daily Catch-Up'.

“We also see it as an ‘incubator’ for start-up businesses who might want to go on and open a shop or an office in Ellesmere.

“There’s a lot of potential and it’s been demonstrated by the response to our first late-night shopping event which attracted more than 400 customers.

“Three more are planned – on Friday, September 29, then at the Ellesmere Winter Festival on Friday, November 24, and Friday, December 15.”

The new organisation has also taken over the running of the monthly Farmers’ Market, which will be held outdoors on Sunday, September 10 at the Wharf Head, in front of the town’s Tesco store.

Plans are already underway for the Ellesmere Food Festival to be held next June and the revival of the annual Summer Festival in August for the first time since before the pandemic.