Linda and Gary say goodbye to Bury St Edmunds' Wednesday market after 15 years

A long-standing stall was pitched at Bury St Edmunds market for the final time today as its stallholders ‘serged’ into retirement.

Linda and Gary Lockwood have run the successful haberdashery stall from the same pitch outside Natwest bank for at least 15 years.

Their markets career started in London in 1989, but when they moved from Essex to Bradfield St George 17 years ago they transferred their stall to markets closer to home, including Haverhill, Mildenhall and Newmarket.

“But Bury is the one we have stayed at the longest,” said Gary, 70.

Linda, 68, said: “We’ve been doing markets for 33 years now so this is like the end of an era for us.

“I think we will miss the interaction with all the customers. A lot of them are friends now, which is lovely.

“We have had a lot of our customers say they come to us here from other towns because our prices are so good and we sell what they need.

“We will also miss the banter. That is the nice thing – you can come here and have a laugh and a joke.”

The couple said they had seen a lot of changes on Bury’s Wednesday market over the past 15 years, with lower footfall being the most noticeable.

“It used to be so busy. The casual stallholders used to queue up to sell on here. Now it is not half as good as it used to be,” said Linda.

“You don’t have the early morning rush of customers like you used to either.

“When we came back from covid it seemed a lot of people had got used to buying online and didn’t come back to shop on the market. We’re definitely not as busy as before covid – but no-one is.”

Linda and Gary’s daughter Nicola and son-in-law Russell, who run the neighbouring fabric stall, are hoping to take on the haberdashery stall in the near future.

“I hope all the customers will come and buy from Nicola and Russell like they have from us,” added Linda.

Linda and Gary’s plans for retirement include a holiday to Fuerteventura and spending time with family, while they also expect to help Nicola and Russell with their stall occasionally.