The damage, in the end, was worse than it looked and cheaper than it might have been.

Phillip Catton spent three days with a ladder, a clipboard, and the grudging assistance of two Markets Board labourers, and the result of their work is a four-page damage assessment that quantifies what Tuesday evening’s gale-force gusts did to the eastern wing of Bramblegate Market.

The numbers: a twelve-foot section of temporary roofing — the same patch installed in October with contingency funds — was torn away entirely. Three stalls suffered water damage, including Vesely & Sons, whose smoked-fish operation absorbed the worst of Friday morning’s rain through the exposed gap. Structural timber supporting the eastern eaves has cracked in two places. The drainage channel along the eastern wall, already prone to blockage, backed up and flooded the flagstones.

The cost: 14,200 florins, Catton estimates. Of that, 8,400 is for a proper galvanised-iron roof section to replace the temporary patching that has been failing, by degrees, since it was installed five months ago. The remainder covers timber repair, drainage clearance, and compensation to the three affected stall holders for lost trading days.

Vesely & Sons

Orna Vesely has sold smoked fish from Bramblegate Market for twenty-eight years. Her stall, which occupies the corner position beneath the eastern eaves, caught the full volume of rainwater that entered through the torn roof on Wednesday morning.

“Three trays of smoked mackerel,” she said Saturday, standing behind a stall that smelled of damp wood and the memory of brine. “A tray of salt herring. Two days of trading. The mackerel I can replace. The days I cannot.”

Vesely & Sons has been trading from the western wing since Wednesday, borrowing counter space from a neighbouring stall holder. The arrangement is functional but cramped, and Vesely has made her feelings about it clear to Catton in language that the Market Warden described, diplomatically, as “forthright.”

Catton’s assessment recommends that the Markets Board compensate Vesely and the two other affected traders — a preserved goods stall and a rope-and-tackle merchant — for up to five days of lost revenue each, at a cost of approximately 1,800 florins total.

The Temporary Fix

A crew of four installed heavy canvas over the exposed section on Thursday morning. The canvas is waterproof and secured with iron cleats, and Catton is satisfied that it will hold through normal weather. Whether it will hold through the next round of March winds is a question he declines to answer with confidence.

“The eastern wing will reopen Monday,” Catton said. “The canvas is sound. But I have been saying the temporary roof was sound since October, and Tuesday proved me a liar. The Markets Board has my assessment. The permanent repair needs to happen before the spring rains.”

The original October patching was itself a compromise — a contingency measure applied when the Markets Board’s annual maintenance budget proved insufficient for a full replacement. That budget, Catton noted, has not been increased since 2022.

The emergency allocation request has been submitted to the Board, which meets fortnightly. The next scheduled meeting is 18 March. Catton has asked for an extraordinary session before then. Whether one will be granted depends on a Markets Board whose agenda, like everything else in Bobington this week, is competing with the tramway debate for attention and money.

The eastern wing opens Monday. The canvas holds. The flagstones are dry. For now.