It’s always nice when people contact me about my writing, and the other week I was happy when someone from BBC Radio Scotland’s “Our Story” history programme got in touch to ask about a poem I wrote about the Victorian Market in Inverness.
I first wrote about the Victorian Market a few years ago, and it’s a piece of writing and research that has come up again several times since. This year is the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Market, and BBC Radio Scotland are broadcasting a programme next week talking about the Market’s history, and the current plans for refurbishment.
My original research into the Market’s history brought up the story of the Market dog that refused to leave his post during a fire: on the upcoming BBC programme, local historian and author Norman Newton will be discussing this in more detail.
My contribution was to talk about my own memories and experiences, and to read the poem that I wrote about the Market.
When I wrote the poem, I was thinking about the history of the Market, about old photographs I had seen of the interior and the people working and shopping there, and about the structure and decoration of the building.
The poem is built to a specific structure or rhythm which was meant to mirror “the precise ironwork” you can see inside the Market itself.
You can read my poem on the Victorian Market’s website https://thevictorianmarket.com/history/.
BBC Scotland’s “Our Story”, presented by Mark Stephen, looking at Inverness Victorian Market, will be broadcast on Tuesday 10th March at 13:30, and repeated on Sunday 15th March at 07:00. You will also be able to listen online via the BBC website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000g5mp or BBC Sounds.
Jennifer Morag Henderson 
2 thoughts on “Poetry, the Inverness Victorian Market, and BBC Radio Scotland”