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 bypass) records that this well-known local landmark was officially opened by Joel Kirby, on 6 July 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 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 towards 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