The Old Market Tavern

The fourth location on the trail is the Old Market Tavern at the north end of Old Market Place. Although there is no documentary or archaeological evidence predating the fourteenth century, place names, old roads and topography suggests that Old Market Place was originally the site of a small Anglo Saxon settlement. It was also at the intersection of the north south road to Chester and the east west road to Stockport and an ideal area for a market which in the first instance may just have been a village green with a market cross. The market was formalised by a Royal Charter in 1290 and the area became the centre of Altrincham’s development until the arrival of the railways in the mid nineteenth century when the focus moved away from what was known as the high town to the lower town. Until this time the Old Market Tavern was the town’s premier inn. It was originally known as the Unicorn inn and is a Grade II listed building, dating from the early 19th century, although an inn had stood on the same site for centuries before. Early records show that the inn was run by the Eaton family from around 1600 to 1675 but the name ‘Unicorn inn’ only appeared on the lease in 1764. In the 17th and 18th centuries a stream ran outside the inn and at one time turned a small water wheel which the landlord used to grind corn. The 1684 two story butter market, which also served as a court and administrative centre, was in the middle of Old Market Place until it was demolished in 1849 when the first town hall was built next to the Unicorn inn. Between the old butter market and the Unicorn was the Roebuck inn which had a cobbled road on either side and which was also known as the Roundabout House. This too was demolished when the road was widened in 1845. A number of the buildings around Old Market Place have medieval timbers and are built on narrow burgage plots approximately 48ft wide by120ft long, which were the earliest form of land ownership.
Old Market Place was also significantly altered in the mid nineteenth century when a direct link to the Dunham road was built. Before then the road had followed High Street into Old Market Place.
The Waggon and Horses inn on the south west side of Old Market Place was in the way of the new road and was pulled down. Part of its site is now occupied by the listed former Cunliffes, Brooks & Co’s Bank, built in 1870. Post Office Street opposite to Brooks Bank was original known as Hollow Bonc which extended to Kingsway and, before it was filled in as part of the Kingsway construction in the 1860s, was very steep with steps down to the lower town. Bonc is Celtic meaning a small hill or bank and another indication of a much earlier settlement.