What is Bury Market?
It’s a typical Northern English market. You will find black pudding, fresh fish, fresh meat and a huge selection of fruit and vegetables. As well as pies, lots of pies. Northerners eat pies seemingly every day, for the main meal and for pudding. The market also has clothes, shoes, haberdashery, knitting wools, bedding, kitchenware…in fact anything you could possibly need for your home. Plus, of course, lots of things you don’t need.
Bury Market, a bit of history
Bury market is one of the oldest in the country, having been granted a charter in the C15th, so it’s 500 years old, and regularly voted the best. It’s moved around a little bit over the years, especially since 1968 when it burnt down. A new market was built in 1971. There are up to 360 stalls.
A note about a Northern market
This is no sophisticated London Borough Market, so you will have to hunt around for sourdough bread or smashed avocado or much other posh stuff. Single cakes are enormous, often filled with cream and can look a bit heavy handed. Forget dainty patisserie: the bigger the better up here. But go with an open mind on a not too chilly day and you should enjoy yourself.
How to get there
The beauty of the market is it is right on the direct tram (overland metro) line from Manchester city centre and the Bury tram stop is right next to the market. There is a regular service, every 15 minutes, and the journey takes just over half an hour from Piccadilly Station. (Around £5 return; April 2026).
There is a bus (135) from Piccadilly Gardens that is cheaper but slower, taking around 50 minutes.
You can drive if you like, and there is a council-run carpark, at around £6 per day. We prefer taking the tram, but if you want to buy heavy things, the car might be easier.
Bury Tram Interchange
Is where the tram terminates. You get your return tram from here. It’s a short walk to the market (5 mins) and on your way you will notice the indoor shopping centre called Mill Gate. There are free toilets here.
When is the market open?
The main outdoor market is open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The indoor Market Hall, with meat and fresh fish stalls is open those days plus Thursday but do check before you travel. The market is undergoing refurbishment, and some space has been closed off.
What is there to buy?
Black Pudding
Bury Market is most famous for its black pudding. This is the essential ingredient for the great British fry up – along with fried eggs, baked beans, fried bread, sausages and bacon. All washed down with a mug of steaming hot tea. The black pudding (a type of sausage with pigs’ blood) is sliced and fried. It has a nice, savoury flavour, but it’s not for everyone.
Pies
Northerners like their pies. Pork pies are filled with pork and jelly to keep them moist, and a range of different fillings, all made with hot water crust pastry. They come in all sizes, from bite-sized to family. They are served cold so go well with a salad leaves, tomatoes, beetroot, and cold, boiled new potatoes. Then there are the shortcrust pastry pies. As well as chicken and steak and onion, they sell cheese and onion. These come in several sizes. They are already cooked, so you just need to reheat them. We bought a medium pie, and it gave us four portions. There are also fruit pies, best served with lashings of custard (or crème fraiche in my case). The wimberry pie is made from fruit from the local area (called bilberry in other regions). It’s pleasantly tart and works well in a pie. Again, we chose medium and got four portions.
Fruit and vegetables
There are several stalls selling a wide range of very fresh produce. I bought some exotic mushrooms for £2.50 and there were very large trays of British strawberries for a similar price. Huge bunches of mint and coriander were £1. I like mint for making tea. I do a cook up once a month on Sundays when I prepare three/four large tray meals (like lasagne) and then divide into portions, so we can have something nutritious and nice when we don’t feel like cooking. I might come here to stock up on my vegetables.
Watch repair
My watch stopped on the way, so I took it here on a whim as I walked past. With this sign, how could I not patronise a shop with this sort of humour? Anyway, we asked the guy to recommend a good fish and chip shop and he did, so I left my watch and off we went.
Fish and chips
Next to pies, Northerners live on fish and chips. We found the recommended place and squeezed into two free seats inside the cosy interior. We had a friendly wait person, too. The menu is brief: it’s basically fish and chips. Or a cheap cheese and onion pie. (What a shame they have all those lovely cheese and onion pies in the market (in fact, one was in my bag) but choose to serve cheap supermarket frozen pies). So, I had just chips with a hot chocolate and Paul had fish and chips with mushy peas, gravy and bread and butter. Mushy peas are quite nice and go well with fish and chips, so I’d recommend them. It was all very pleasant and reminded me of the times when I went with my auntie on the bus to the market in Sheffield. Paul said his fish was excellent.
Back to collect my watch
The guy said all was fine with my watch. He said he’d put it on the spinner, and it was keeping good time now. As he was saying this, I was nodding knowingly. Anyway, there was no charge. What a lovely man. And thanks for the heads up about the fish and chips.
What else can you buy?
There are Lancashire cakes like Manchester tart, Chorley cakes and Eccles cakes and cream cakes. Cheese stalls sell local cheese as well as other British cheeses. The indoor Market Hall has meat and fish stalls with a huge variety of produce on offer. Bargain meat packs are popular and keenly priced. Back outside, I saw a pretty haberdashery stall with buttons and ribbons of every colour and size and a stall selling knitting wool. I inspected a few shoes at bargain prices and browsed around the many clothes stalls. I also saw handbags, suitcases, kitchenware and cleaning products. You can probably buy anything here – there are over 300 to browse.
Is it worth it?
For a very English Northern experience, I’d recommend it. Especially if you like pies and fish and chips. Even if you don’t, it’s a good day out. And everything we bought was very good quality.
Disclosure. A personal trip; we paid for everything ourselves. Words and images copyright Luxury Livvy and may not be reproduced except by written permission prior.