This has been a local landmark for more than 125 years. A commemorative plaque (at the corner of the building facing the Mexborough bypass) records that the Market Hall was opened by Joel Kirby, on 6 July 1880. Kirby was a self-made man who became head of the local board (forerunner of the local council) and lived in Vine Villa – so called as it was the only house in Mexborough where grapes were grown.
Photographs and text about The Old Market Hall.
The text reads: A commemorative plaque at the corner of The Old Market Hall (facing Mexborough by-pass) records that this well-known local landmark was officially opened by Joel Kirby, on July 6 1880.
Kirby was a self-made man, who became head of the Local Board (forerunner of the Urban District Council). He lived in Vine Villa, so-named as it was the only place in Mexborough where grapes were grown.
Until 1997, there was a memorial to local coal miner William Hackett next to the main doors of the old market hall. Unveiled soon after Hackett was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, on 29 November 1916, it is now in Castle Hills Park. The VC can be seen in the Royal Engineer’s Museum, Chatham.
Top: The old Market Hall
Left: The Market from Market Place.
Photographs of Pepper’s Corner.
Above: Pepper’s Corner, looking up Garden Street, c1905
Below: Pepper’s Corner looking west along High Street.
Photographs of the old Market Hall.
Top: Market Place with the old Market Hall in the distance on the right
Below: The rear of the old Market Hall.
A photograph of the Market Hall decked out for Coronation Day, 1911.
A collection of photographs of Market Street and the old Market Hall.
Above: The Sheffield Bank building on the corner of Bank Street and Market Street, opposite the entrance to the old Market Hall, c1905.
Below: A lorry descends toward Market Place, passing this site.
Top right: The Rainbow Bazaar, 1894; a group photographed outside the old Market Hall entrance.
Below right: The key to everyone in the top right photograph.
Below centre: Bank Street and Market Street.
A photograph of the Montagu Arms on the right, the Sheffield Bank on the left, and the old Market Hall between them on the way down to Market Place.
External photograph of the building – main entrance.
If you have information on the history of this pub, then we’d like you to share it with us. Please e-mail all information to: pubhistories@jdwetherspoon.co.uk