Neville Alderman set his shellfish crates on the flagstones at half past five on Tuesday morning, lined his oysters in rows of eight as he has done for thirty-one years, and looked up at the heavy canvas stretched above his head where galvanised iron used to be.

“It’s not a roof,” he said. “But it keeps the rain off the oysters, and that’s all an oyster asks.”

Alderman’s Shellfish, Mrs Florence Gowan’s herb and dried-flower stall, and Cartwright’s Brassware were the last three to return to Bramblegate Market’s eastern wing, joining the eleven stall holders who resumed trading when the wing reopened under temporary canvas on Monday of last week. All fourteen stalls are now occupied — a full complement for the first time since the early-morning gales of 4 March tore a section of the galvanised-iron roof free and sent rainwater flooding through three stalls.

Market Warden Phillip Catton said the three had delayed their return to allow time for additional drainage work beneath their pitches. Water had pooled beneath Alderman’s and Gowan’s stalls during the initial flooding, and a municipal works crew spent Thursday and Friday installing a gravel soak-away and repositioning a drainage channel.

“The canvas is sound,” Catton said. “It’s rated for sixty-knot gusts, which is more than the old iron ever managed. The drainage was the concern, and that’s now addressed.”

Customer numbers on Tuesday were approximately eighty-five per cent of pre-storm levels, Catton estimated. Orna Vesely, whose smoked-fish stall was the first to return on 9 March, reported that her lunchtime queue had regained its customary length — roughly twenty minutes.

“People came back before the roof did,” Vesely said. “That tells you something about the market.”

Mrs Gowan, whose herbs and dried flowers occupy a corner pitch near the eastern entrance, said several regular customers had visited other markets during the closure but returned immediately.

“Mrs Fenton came at seven o’clock this morning with a list,” Gowan said. “Dried lavender, rosemary bundles, and a jar of the calendula salve. She said the lavender at Millgate was ‘perfectly adequate but without character.’ I shall take that as a compliment.”

The permanent repair — replacement of the damaged roof section, reinforcement of the timber frame, and improved drainage throughout the eastern wing — is estimated at 14,200 florins. Catton has requested an emergency allocation from the Municipal Markets Board, which is scheduled to meet on 18 March.

“The canvas is temporary,” Catton said. “It was always intended to be temporary. The board meets next week, and I expect the matter to be resolved promptly. The market has been here for a hundred years. It will be here for a hundred more, and it will have a proper roof.”