Brierley Hill Market will be ‘restored to former glory’

Promises have been made to bring in more stallholders, upgrade the building, stage seasonal events and create a community hub area at Brierley Hall Market.

Plans are also in the pipeline to revamp the former upstairs part of the market hall with the aim of holding record fairs or fashion stalls in the future.

Wayne Jones, from agents Jennings Homer and Lynch Ltd, said the market was going from strength to strength.

He explained: “There are plans in place to upgrade the market and we have reduced the rent on some of the stalls in there.

“We still have a handful of stalls left and expect about 10 or 15 new traders to join us by the end of spring to get us full.

“One of our ideas is to have a community meeting point in the market. It is in its early days at the minute but we would like a surgery where people could drop in and meet MPs or local police support officers.

“We want to make it a real hub for the community.

“There will be a focus on redecorating the hall next year, too. We redecorated a couple of traditional stalls in the market and we want to add a new disabled toilet and baby-changing facilities.

He continued: “There is an upstairs, too, that used to be in use for 20/30 traders but it hasn’t been in use for years. We would like to look at other ways of getting that back in use and we are talking to the new owners about that.

“It would be great to be able to stage record fairs or fashion stalls there.

“When it was for sale there were lots of rumours circulating and we wanted to stress that it would not be closing down.

“It is going from strength to strength with more positive things on the way.” Events for Valentine’s Day, Easter and children’s activities will also take place this year.

Advice and business monitoring will be on offer to new and old traders alike.

Jennings Homer and Lynch were the architects behind the building of the market in the 1930s.

Councillor Rachel Harris, who represents Brierley Hill, added: “There will be lots of effort and energy go into the market over the next 12 months and it will all add to the fact that Brierley Hill is a thriving place to be.”