Market Cross, Barnard Castle
Part of Discover Teesdale our guide to the walks, history and peaceful places that make Teesdale special.
Welcome to the Market Cross
Right in the centre of Barnard Castle stands one of the town’s most distinctive and much loved buildings. Its official name is the Market Cross, but almost everyone locally calls it the Butter Market, a name earned during the years when farmers’ wives sold butter, cheese and eggs beneath its stone pillars.
Today it is a lovely little place to explore. You can walk right inside it, stand under the sandstone arches and look up into the structure. You cannot climb the stairs to the upper room, but the ground floor alone is full of character and stories. This page shares that history in a warm, easy to understand way that brings the building to life for anyone visiting Barnard Castle
What to Look For
As you approach the Market Cross, the first thing you will notice is its unusual octagonal shape. The ground floor is completely open and held up by sturdy stone pillars which create a covered space that once sheltered the town’s dairy market. Standing here makes it easy to imagine the sound of voices, laughter and baskets being set down during busy market mornings.
Look up a little higher and you will see the small cupola and weather vane perched on the roof. If the sun catches it, you may spot two tiny holes in the vane. Local tradition says these were made during a friendly shooting contest in the early eighteen hundreds, when a volunteer soldier and a game keeper tried to see who could hit the vane from across the road. According to the tale, both succeeded.
Walking beneath the pillars gives you a lovely sense of the building’s past. You can look up above you and picture the upper room once being used for the courtroom, the town’s tiny lock up and even as storage for early fire equipment. Even without being able to climb the stairs, you can feel how important this small building once was.
A Friendly Timeline of the Market Cross
1747 — A Gift to the Town
The Market Cross was built in seventeen forty seven by Thomas Breaks, a local wool merchant who wanted to leave something meaningful for Barnard Castle. He paid for the whole structure himself. With its open ground floor supported by strong stone pillars, it quickly became one of the busiest and most sociable places in the town.
Late 1700s to Early 1800s — The Dairy Market Days
This is when the building earned its much-loved local name, the Butter Market. Farmers’ wives travelled in from across Teesdale with baskets full of butter, cheese and eggs. They set up their produce under the shelter of the pillars and filled the space with chatter, bartering and the warm smell of fresh dairy. For a long time, this was the lively heart of everyday town life.
Early 1800s — The Lock-Up (The “Black Hole”)
In eighteen ten everything changed inside the ground floor. The central part of the building was walled in to create a small lock-up. Locals called it the Black Hole, and once you know what it was like, the name makes complete sense.
It was cold, dark and cramped, with only a tiny opening above the door for air. It was never meant for long stays. Instead it was used to hold drunks, troublemakers or people waiting to be taken to a larger jail. Many spent just a single night here before facing the magistrates.
Records tell us that an iron shackle ring was found years later in a nearby shop basement, believed to have been used in the lock-up. The inner supports around the cell were also caged off, making the space feel even more secure and enclosed.
The lock-up stopped being used after the County Police Act of eighteen thirty nine brought more modern police stations to towns like Barnard Castle. Once the cell was no longer needed, the space was soon given a new purpose.
1814 — A Courtroom Above the Market
Just four years after the lock-up was built, the upper floor of the Market Cross was converted into a courtroom. It made the building an unusual three-tier mix: market life below, a dark little cell hidden in the centre, and formal justice carried out above.
The courtroom had alternating Venetian style windows and wall niches that gave it a surprising elegance. A tiny jury gallery was added in eighteen twenty six. Magistrates held their hearings here, often trying the very people who had spent the night locked in the Black Hole downstairs.
The room was also used as a meeting place and a small town hall. It must have felt tight and busy on days when court was in session, but it played a vital role until larger civic buildings were built later in the century.
1804 — The Famous Bullet Holes
One of the Market Cross’s most entertaining stories comes from 1804, when two local men — Taylor, a soldier in the Teesdale Volunteer Legion, and Cruddas, a gamekeeper for the Earl of Strathmore argued over who was the better shot.
The argument took place in the nearby Turk’s Head pub, and to settle it they stepped outside with their smooth bore muskets, most likely Brown Bess rifles. Standing in the pub doorway, nearly one hundred yards from the weather vane on top of the Market Cross, they each fired a single shot.
Remarkably, both men hit the vane.
The two tiny holes you can still see today were made during that contest and have remained as one of Barnard Castle’s favourite pieces of local folklore. Some suggest they might have fired from a gunsmith’s shop instead, simply because of the accuracy involved, but the long-standing tale of the Turk’s Head challenge remains the version locals treasure.
19th Century — Barnard Castle’s Fire Station
Once the lock-up was no longer used, the Market Cross took on yet another role. For more than a hundred years the town’s fire engine had been stored at St Mary’s Church, but sometime during the nineteenth century it was moved into the central ground floor of the Market Cross.
The building became the home of Barnard Castle’s early fire service. The fire wagon was kept ready inside, and the little bell in the cupola above was used as an alarm. When a fire broke out, the bell rang out across the town and volunteers rushed to help.
That same bell later rang one final time for the funeral of a local firefighter, a touching reminder of the Market Cross’s place in the life of the town.
1930s — The Market Moves Elsewhere
By the nineteen thirties the dairy market had relocated and the Butter Market slowly stopped being a working building. Instead it became a historic feature that people admired, protected and felt proud of.
Today — A Loved Landmark with a Calm Presence
Now Grade I listed, the Market Cross is one of Barnard Castle’s most photographed and recognisable landmarks. Visitors step into the open ground floor, look up at the weather vane, search for the bullet holes and enjoy a quiet moment in the middle of a very historic town.
A closer look at the two tiny bullet holes left behind after Taylor and Cruddas tested their aim in eighteen hundred and four. A little piece of Barnard Castle history you can still spot today.
Can You Go Inside?
Yes, you can walk straight into the open area on the ground floor.
It is a sheltered, peaceful place to take in the centre of Barnard Castle.
The upper room is not open to the public, but the knowledge of what once happened above you makes the experience more interesting.
Tips for Visiting
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Early morning or late afternoon sunlight looks beautiful on the stone
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Look for the bullet holes if the sky is bright
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Be mindful of traffic around the building
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Combine this visit with a walk to the castle, shops or riverside
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A lovely place for a quiet pause or a quick photograph