October 2026

Every trade has its own private language, and markets more than most. Spend a Wednesday or a Saturday in Bridport and you are surrounded by ‘pitches’, ‘casuals’, ‘grafters’ and ‘swag’, but one of the oldest words of the lot is ‘toby’.

Ask a market trader what the toby is and you will get one of two answers: it is the rent you pay for your pitch and it is also the person who comes round to collect it. In plenty of market towns the market superintendent has simply been ‘the toby’ for generations, whatever his mother called him.

So where does a word like that come from? Most people point at the mantelpiece. Toby jugs, those jolly seated chaps in tricorn hats clutching a jug of ale, were first made in the Staffordshire potteries in the 1760s and are generally credited to Ralph Wood of Burslem. The name is thought to come from Toby Fillpot, the thirsty old soul in a 1761 drinking song called The Brown Jug, and the clever bit of design is the hat, as the corner of the tricorn forms the spout you pour from.

Market lore has it that a trader arriving in an unfamiliar town would head for the pub first, because the Toby jug on the shelf showed him roughly the face of the man he was looking for. Whether that is history or simply a very good story, the name stuck.

Which brings us neatly to Tell Toby^©, the Bridport Market app built by our own market superintendent, Ken Hussey. It is where traders sign up for the twice- weekly market and craft fairs; book and arrange their pitches; check their invoices; and leave a message for Ken without having to catch him halfway up the street with an armful of paperwork. Exactly the job the toby has always done, minus the leather bag of change.

There is rather more to us than Wednesdays and Saturdays, though. We also run craft fairs throughout the year, and we take the bookings for special events, including Christmas Cheer, the town’s late-night shopping evening. This year it falls on Wednesday 9 December, and applications for pitches and craft fairs are open now.

If you have ever fancied a stall of your own, whether for the market, a craft fair or Christmas Cheer, you can also sign up at bridportmarket.co.uk or pick up a form from the Tourist Information Centre. Toby is expecting you.

Helen Goldman, Markets and Clerical Officer

Toby jug photo by Andreas Praefcke/Flickr/CC