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Victoria Road - Barbers
To Bridge Road
By the 1860s, Barber's success had attracted the attention of the Wellington Market Company who wanted to open new facilities on Bridge Road where they could collect tolls themselves, having purchased the right to do so from the Lord of the Manor. In return for closing his own market, which had already begun to outgrow its cramped location, Barber was granted sole rights to hold auctions at the new site, partly as a mark of thanks for drawing up plans and helping to obtain an Act of Parliament for the Company's new market hall. Bridge Road Smithfield Market opened in 1868 and grew to become one the most prominent cattle markets in the country by the end of the Victorian period, ushering in an even greater era of commercial prosperity for the town itself.