My Saturday morning chore in the early 60s was to get the bus from Patcham to buy sage and onion sausages from Longs. My father would eat no other sausages. Mum used to cook the lot when I got home for my dad to take to work with his packed lunch, and then hide them. I absolutely could not resist sausages. I discovered that she put them in an old butler's sink which my dad had buried in the garden in an area of crazy paving and replaced the paving stone to hide it.

Like others I too remember the open market in the late 1940s and 1950s and the blacksmith (as we called him) just before the market entrance. What also sprung to mind was the fish stall with what I always thought were eggs ready for frying in shells! I've since learned they were escallops.

Mick Peirson - have you a sister called Geraldine?

Are you the Joan Oram I went to school with - Varndean Girls?

Hello Teresa, I've only just seen your message. I certainly must be the same person for it is an unusal name and I don't think anyone else of my name went to Varndean. I'm racking my brains but I cannot place you, was it 3Y? Please forgive me, I've lived in London for 50 years and although I visit family, have lost touch. This site has brought memories flooding back. Perhaps you will make contact and we can reminisce.

I remember the blacksmiths at the market well - what amazing showers of sparks for a small boy to stare at. There was also a blacksmith in Jubilee Street off North Road

Maurice Raff, the blind man who owned the toy stall in the Open Market was my Grandfather, and helping him out there on a Saturday was my first job. Before he lost his sight he had been a tailor and, before he shared a stall with Vic (I think his name was), the engraver, he always stocked large rolls of material, elastic, zips and other haberdashery items. Sometimes a crowd of children would cluster around the front of the stall, sent by their Mothers to look at the toys whilst their Mothers did their shopping. Knowing that they weren't going to buy anything, he would go to the front of the stall and move along it 'tidying up' the toys and pretending he hadn't realised anyone was there, until he had cleared the crowd away and, hopefully, left the way clear for real customers!

Does anyone happen to know when the old farrier's building was demolished and replaced with the current grocer's shop and apartments above? I live in one of the apartments and I'm quite fascinated by the history of Marshalls Row and the Open Market area.

I remember the blind man's stall in the market, I even tell my grandchildren about him. Also Pips' icecreams and the tiny glasses of fizzy drink you could buy as well. Also on one of these sites, someone remembered the fountain in the Steine changing colour. I thought I had imagined that!

I remember my mother, Doris Wilson, showing me a photo of the forge in a book on Brighton with her father, Charles Gravett, in it as a boy. Apparently that's where he was trained to be a farrier. I'm still looking for the book!

What wonderful memories. I to used to stand across from the forge outside a clothes shop near the rather smelly toilets whilst Mum went to buy the veg. As the previous comments, I think the smell of the hot shoe being fitted to the horses hoof will remain forever, not unlike that smell of a tooth being drilled. The shoeing cage still exsists I believe. I last saw it in the Stanmer Rural museum behind Stanmer House. Worth a visit if its still going. Also see the Donkey Wheel next to the Church.

Seems I am one of the many who remember with fondness the 'open market', the blacksmiths, the blind man's stall etc. Every Saturday my mother would take me there and after doing the shopping we would go into one of the little stalls which was run by a husband and wife where we would enjoy a cup of tea and my favourite savoury pastie (very tasty), usually my mum would meet up with one of her friends in there too. Happy days as the saying goes....

It seems that I am being taken back in time reading all of these comments. I also was enthralled watching the blacksmith shoeing the horses. My mother used to leave me there to go along to the Coop store sometimes for ages it seemed. Food rationing in those days and queues everywhere. I do not think people have the patience for queueing today, everybody is in a rush and it is just the same here in Australia but I enjoyed the Queens visit this week. What a grand person she is.

I remember as kids me and my brothers waiting by the blacksmiths while  mum went shoping.The smell of burning on the shoes on the horses feet.The timber frame is now at Stammer Park in the Museum part. I remember wondering off and ended up in Woolworths in London Rd. I ended up getting lost and ended up in the Police box in the market.

Two things I recall about the Open Market are: The Blacksmith (farrier) not only shoeing horses but fitting the metal tyres onto cartwheels where the tyre was heated up then pressed on to the wooden wheel rim then doused with cold water to shrink it onto the wheel with loads of steam. Marmery's fish stall. David Marmery lived in Mayfield Crescent, Patcham next door to the twitten that ran uphill from Carden Avenue. I lived to 1954 a few doors down on the other side. I think he was bright and went Varndean School. I remember him running the market stall many years later. John C Snelling.