The canvas came down at seven o’clock on Monday morning, and what went up in its place was steel.

A crew of eight from Hallam & Stroud erected scaffolding along the full length of Bramblegate Market’s eastern wing before the first stall holders arrived to set up. By nine, the familiar silhouette of the market’s roofline had acquired a skeleton of poles and platforms that will remain for approximately three weeks while the damaged galvanised-iron roof section, timber framing, and drainage channel are replaced.

The heavy canvas patch installed on 6 March after the March gales tore through the eastern wing has kept the worst of the weather out — but not all of it. Neville Alderman, the shellfish merchant who has traded from the eastern wing for thirty-one years, has been operating beneath a canvas that leaked in seven places.

“I’ve been selling whelks under a dripping ceiling for three weeks,” Mr Alderman said, arranging his morning display around a bucket positioned to catch a persistent trickle. “I’m not complaining. A man who sells shellfish has no right to complain about water. But I’ll be glad of a proper roof.”

The Markets Board approved the 14,200-florin allocation on 18 March — 8,400 florins for the galvanised-iron roof section, with the remainder covering timber, drainage, labour, and compensation for disrupted stall holders. Hallam & Stroud, the city’s leading engineering consultancy, are overseeing the work. The capital maintenance reserve stands at 61,000 florins after the allocation.

Market Warden Phillip Catton has coordinated the staged repair to keep all stalls operational throughout. Three eastern-wing stall holders — Mr Alderman, Mrs Florence Gowan of the herb and dried-flower stall, and fishmonger Raymond Keel — have been temporarily relocated within the wing, shifting approximately four metres west to clear the immediate work area.

“The market does not close,” Mr Catton said, in a tone that suggested the proposition had never seriously been entertained. “We have moved stalls before. We moved them during the pier repairs of 2018, and we moved them during the great storm roof patch of 2003. The market stays open.”

Raymond Keel, a fishmonger of twenty-six years’ standing who was not previously known to this newspaper, accepted his temporary relocation with the observation that he was now positioned directly beside the market’s main entrance. “Best pitch I’ve had in a decade,” he said. “I may not want to move back.”

Mrs Gowan was less sanguine. “My regular customers know where to find me,” she said. “Now they’ll have to look. Mrs Fenton has been coming to the same spot every Thursday for eleven years. She’ll think I’ve died.”

The repair work will proceed in three phases: scaffolding and stripping this week, timber framing and drainage next week, and the new galvanised-iron section in the final week. Completion is expected by mid-April, weather permitting.

The canvas patches have been folded and stored. Mr Catton intends to keep them.