Market Row, off Moor Street, Ormskirk was, until the 1980s, much wider than we see it today. Through its long history it has been home a thriving community of shops, businesses and dwellings selling everything from fish and poultry to hats, boots and tobacco. Longstanding Ormskirk business Hesford's started here in 1903 when Charles Martin Hesford established his agricultural engineering firm.
Market Row did not exist before 1870, it was created when the building that had been the ancient inn the Legs of Man, leased by Butcher Thomas Sharrock, was pulled down after his death in 1870 and his family moved the shop to Aughton Street. Sharrock called his building The Shambles, a name that was then used for the Butchers market in Church Street under the Town Hall and also the same name Thomas Sharrock's widow and son used for their new Butchers shop in Aughton Street.
The Market Row sign is still in situ. When the Prudential Assurance Company gave the space we know as Wheatsheaf Car Park, to the Council after the Wheatsheaf Hotel and the Ormskirk Hall were demolished in the mid 1960s, a legal codicil was signed by both parties agreeing that any access to Moor Street from the new car park would be closed off. The Prudential owned the new Wheatsheaf Walk development and wanted foot fall to pass through their new precinct. The Council delayed the inevitable for over 4 years but then had to build a wall at the top of the Row. Bibby & Wareing owned Market Row up until their closure in September 1985. After that date due to apparent instability of the buildings, the plan was made to rebuild and narrow the gap considerably.