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 Weekly
markets took place on Thursdays and Saturdays and annual fairs
on the feast days of Saint John the Baptist, 24 June, and Saint
Martin, November 11. See image opposite of the old market,
Halifax.
The Market Charter allowed for any argument
or dispute to be settled by Court of Pie Powder. The origin of
these peculiar market courts is the Norman-French legal term "pied-poudre", the dusty feet of those who had travelled to the market. See image of Moot
Hall below, click for details.
 A
traveller visiting the Calder valley compared it as a manufacturing
district to other parts of England and noted that here there
was "more men and women than any other living creatures". After 1650 the population of Calderdale grew steadily.
With more people employed in textile making
occupations than anywhere else in Yorkshire cloth production
increased.
In 1665 a Dutch merchant living in Halifax
called Kyte regularly dispatched between 30 to 40 packs of kersey,
that is 300 to 400 pieces of cloth, each week to Hull or Newcastle
upon Tyne bound for Holland. After they were dyed in the Netherlands
most of the cloth was sold in Turkey.
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