Shambles Street and Shambles Square, the former name for Market Square, are indicative of the areas former association with the slaughtering of animals. A ‘Shambles’ is a butcher’s slaughterhouse and archaic name that only survives in placenames. It is derived from a mixture of Latin and Anglo-Saxon words. It is clearly marked on the Ordnance Survey Map c1900, ‘the shambles’ and the street was the way to it. After the Famine and during the 1850s the market for meat diminished due to a lower population and a lack of money. The shambles had no windows but hinged open fronts from where they sold their produce. The House Survey of 1842 shows the existence of no less than 7 butchers trading on the street while a note is attached that the rate of tax should be halved for the 3 shambles trading in Shambles Square as they are regarded as open sheds (Valuation Office House Survey 1842).
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