Trader goes back to roots with sarsaparilla stall on Blackburn Market (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Trader goes back to roots with sarsaparilla stall on Blackburn Market
6:00pm Friday 2nd November 2012 in News
By Catherine Pye, Health reporter
Alan Taylor
SARSAPARILLA has made a long-awaited return to Blackburn Market.
Home Brew, run by Alan Taylor, has opened on the market’s Artisan Row, and has been doing a brisk trade, with many people reminiscing about the old market’s famous sarsaparilla stall which closed last year.
Alan, 44, said: “I remember going to the old market for sarsaparilla when I was a child – it was an institution, and it seemed such a shame that the original stall didn’t come into the new market.
“I knew it was sorely missed by the townspeople and decided to bring it back along with some home brewed ginger beer and the feedback from customers has been very positive.”
Alan, who also sells light-up toys on Blackpool promenade, decided to take the plunge into market trading after being made redundant from a factory.
Now his wife Jean Tilley is responsible for the two-week brewing process at their home in Guide. He admitted it’s an acquired taste, adding: “But people who come saying they’ve tried it in the past and don’t like it, are being converted.”
The original sarsaparilla stall, called R Walsh and Co, first opened in King Street before moving to the old market site.
As an eight-year-old, Peter Barnes would move barrels to earn pocket money, and when the owner died, Mr Barnes took over. After his death, aged 66, in December 2010, his wife Teresa took over, but decided not to move to the new market.
Comments(18)
MerlinTheVoiceofReason2
says...
7:05pm Fri 2 Nov 12
ste.g
says...
7:14pm Fri 2 Nov 12
bury and preston for me,the council should be ashamed of themselves for what they have turned this market into
MerlinTheVoiceofReason2
says...
7:24pm Fri 2 Nov 12
ste.g wrote:The basic problem is high rents, meaning higher prices on Blackburn compared to Darwen, Clitheroe, Chorley, Bury or Bolton markets. This means a low take up of stalls. The Council chiefs were warned but refused to listen. Will they repent and change the terms? Probably not. They'll let it die and say markets don't work in 2-3 years time.
went round the market last week for the first and last time.half the stalls dont even use their full displays,and nearly half where empty.there where laptops being sold on one stall which was designed for refrigerated goods and i was round all the stalls in five minutes.cr@p
bury and preston for me,the council should be ashamed of themselves for what they have turned this market into
Info-warrior
says...
7:25pm Fri 2 Nov 12
2 for 5p
says...
10:44pm Fri 2 Nov 12
MerlinTheVoiceofReasLet's breakdown this
on2 wrote:
You could get a pint of Walsh's for about £1.40 not so long ago. This guy is charging beer prices without any duty to pay! Good luck to him but is it as good as Walsh's? And it just shows what exorbitant rents the stallholders are paying to the Council - the prices on the market are the most expensive anywhere in the Northwest! Someone's head should roll for the costings.
£1.20 for half a pint now that is beer prices and the man is not paying alcohol duty .
Which makes me think sugar and yeast is used in brewing sasparella so there will probably be alcohol in sasparella. This guy could be evading duty. Worth a look from HMRC, Me thinks.
Perhaps he is charging duty and not passing it on 2 years prob 3 .
real betis hotpot
says...
11:32pm Fri 2 Nov 12
2 for 5p
says...
11:34pm Fri 2 Nov 12
What do you think
dg666
says...
8:47am Sat 3 Nov 12
HMRC do me a favour 2 for 5p get a life!!
Good luck fella and I for one will be popping in for a swift half when I get my fish from the Market!
woolywords
says...
9:07am Sat 3 Nov 12
dg666 wrote:I'd love to post something positive here about the centre of Blackburn and it's market but sadly, I can't, won't and too despondent to even try.
God there are some negative dull people posting on here. I say good luck to the man, he has been made redundant and is trying to earn a living, rather than relying on the over burdened benefit system like so many do!!
HMRC do me a favour 2 for 5p get a life!!
Good luck fella and I for one will be popping in for a swift half when I get my fish from the Market!
As we sucked the last dregs out of the pumps in the St Johns Tavern, my mate said to me, why not open up the car park for a market stall, 7 days a week?
£5 for all day parking, what's left, market stalls..
am that busy thinking about his other mate, who sells adult stuff in Blackpool that I missed the whole point of the thing. The rooftop market is completely safe, has no defects or anything...
By the time the Council caught us and tried to fine us we'd be long gone...
I just kept thinking about his mate, with the rubber toys...
You know what Tel, my old mate, we could have been millionaires by now..
C'est la vie, my mucker.
mrsm680
says...
3:06pm Sat 3 Nov 12
gazzandste
says...
5:46pm Sat 3 Nov 12
real betis hotpot wrote:Phone covers in a fridge, is that the new meaning of cold calling.
It's not Bury market though, literally the greatest thing in the entire history of the universe ever. And it's not f&cking outside! Will they ever learn real markets are bury markets and are outside with open air and not inside with closed air. Also all the fittings are on display on the ceiling and they sell curry, it's just too different and not like a real bury market. I walked through the other day and they had flowers for sale on a food counter and mobile phone covers on display in a fridge and escalators that only go one way and it's an utter joke and as if all that isn't bad enough it didn't even sell sasparilla.
trevhd
says...
11:22am Sun 4 Nov 12
2 for 5p wrote:No alcohol in it used to be served in the temperance bars
MerlinTheVoiceofReasLet's breakdown this
on2 wrote:
You could get a pint of Walsh's for about £1.40 not so long ago. This guy is charging beer prices without any duty to pay! Good luck to him but is it as good as Walsh's? And it just shows what exorbitant rents the stallholders are paying to the Council - the prices on the market are the most expensive anywhere in the Northwest! Someone's head should roll for the costings.
£1.20 for half a pint now that is beer prices and the man is not paying alcohol duty .
Which makes me think sugar and yeast is used in brewing sasparella so there will probably be alcohol in sasparella. This guy could be evading duty. Worth a look from HMRC, Me thinks.
Perhaps he is charging duty and not passing it on 2 years prob 3 .
Far East Calling
says...
2:40am Mon 5 Nov 12
tenerc
says...
8:56am Tue 6 Nov 12
LEJ1979
says...
12:46pm Thu 8 Nov 12
paperboy70
says...
2:21pm Thu 8 Nov 12
paperboy70
says...
2:24pm Thu 8 Nov 12
mrsm680 wrote:The prices aren't high at Blackburn Market - the stall holders still offer excellent value money and I go every week.
Well I say good luck to the guy. These days prices are so high as the rent on the Market is disgusting. I used to live in Blackburn and think that the new Market is terrible. Its set out badly and there is nothing there. I love Bury Market and so many others as thay still have the old feel about them as proper Markets should have. Its time the greedy council looked at this over priced rent and made changes.
allan1957 says...
6:16pm Fri 2 Nov 12