KING JOHN.BRITAIN HAS TOO MUCH HISTORY SOMETIMES.
This quirky little story was heard on the radio yesterday.
No market can be set up within a day's donkey ride of South Shields.
A Tyneside town's hope of setting up a weekly market has been dashed by an ancient law involving a donkey.
Since the 1200s, South Shields has the right to block rival markets being run less than a day's donkey ride, or six and two-thirds of a mile, away.
North Shields, on the opposite side of the River Tyne, wants its own market, but is blocked by the ancient charter.
Maggie Richardson said that North Shields needed a market to bring vibrancy to the town centre.
She said: "We have been trying for a number of years to get around this, but every time we have approached South Tyneside Council, they say they were given a market charter some time in the 1200 region by King John, so that no one can set up a market within a day's donkey ride.
A spokeswoman for South Tyneside Council said that the ancient six and two-thirds mile exclusion zone referred to the distance a trader was deemed to be able to travel from home, sell for eight hours, then return in a single day.
She added: "South Shields market is both vibrant and popular.
2 comments:
I was discussing some odd laws with my class and we discovered some brilliant ones. For example, it is illegal to die in the houses of Parliament. How are offenders punished??
pluto: Thanks for calling by my blog. I don't ever intend to be an M.P. so no worry with that law as for the punishment, still pondering!
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