Much-loved market will relaunch next spring ‘just up the road’
Skirlington Market will continue at a new site from next spring(Image: Skirlington Market )
Thousands of people who signed a petition to save a much-loved East Yorkshire market and car boot will be delighted to know that it is to be preserved. Skirlington Market has been a cornerstone of life on the east coast for 40 years and its bosses – and the visiting public – were dismayed when they were told the land it occupies was needed for an expansion of leisure facilities by Unity Holidays’ neighbouring holiday park.
Now, it has been announced that Skirlington Market will bow out in October and return, hopefully in April 2027, in a field just along the way at Skipsea. Tom Parry, who runs the market with his wife, Angela, said: “We’ve got a new site, just up the road. This has all come together in the last two weeks.”
Tom said: “It’s fantastic, and a breath of fresh air really.” He said that, at first, they were looking for an old farm or something similar to replicate the established market; further down the line they realised that the grass field would offer a blank canvas for a new set-up.
“You could say that Skirlington Market now is a bit of a rabbit warren. It was a higgledy-piggledy old farm and it could be that visitors would miss some part of it, depending on which way they walked through it.
“The new site is going to be a big, square market, with catering, and a big, square car boot, and no one is going to miss out on anything. We’ve got room for a bigger, better car boot and booters will love it being grass – they don’t like the hardstanding they are on now.”
Tom said the field stretched to 110 acres – “we won’t be using all of that, we’ll use about 30 acres” – and there would be “a lot more room” for traders. “The site at the moment is only 15 acres,” he said.
The current Skirlington Market will cease on October 25. “We’re having a big Halloween event and send-off to say we’ve had a fantastic 40 years on that site, and a big thank you to all our customers, traders and booters.”
Tom said he felt “excited” and “positive” for the future of the market and believed the new site, which will have roads put in for access, could be “better than what we have now”. “It would have been mad to lose it for the area, all the campsites, and Hornsea and Bridlington, when tourism is the main driver in this area.
“All of our current traders have first refusal on coming to the new site.” Tom said he appreciated that for the traders who had stalls indoors that it would be something different for them to manage.
“Where they have previously come in their car and put stock out on a table inside, they will have the option of bringing a pop-up gazebo and setting up in that. We will possibly be putting some stalls up for those who can’t manage that.”
Did you know you can make Hull Live a preferred source of Hull news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here .