The Totnes Elizabethan Charter Day Tradition

If you happen to walk into Totnes on a Tuesday morning between May and September, you will find something quietly unusual taking place in the Market Square. The traders are dressed as Elizabethans. Doublets, ruffs, leather jerkins, embroidered caps. It is not a re-enactment and it is not a one-off festival. It is the Totnes Elizabethan Charter Day, a weekly market run by the Totnes Elizabethan Society in honour of the royal charter granted to the town by Queen Elizabeth I in 1596. The market has been running in this form for decades, and it is one of the small, distinctive things that gives Totnes its character.

Why Tuesdays, why Tudor

Totnes had been a chartered market town since the 12th century, but the 1596 charter from Elizabeth I confirmed and renewed its civic privileges, including its market rights. The town has been quietly proud of that royal endorsement ever since. The Elizabethan Society was founded in the 20th century to celebrate the period and to raise money for local charities through the weekly summer market. Stalls are run by volunteers in costume, profits go to good causes, and the whole thing has the warm, slightly homespun feel of a town tradition rather than a heritage industry product.

You will see Tudor servants selling jam, plague doctors selling soap, and the occasional courtier on a tea break behind a trestle of second-hand books. Costumes range from carefully researched to gleefully improvised. The market is held in and around the Civic Square at the top of Fore Street, just below the Guildhall.

What is on the stalls

Around 15 stalls run each week, with a mix that varies through the season. Regulars include local jams and chutneys, handmade soaps, homemade cakes, books, bric-a-brac, hand-knitted goods, plants from local gardens, and craft items from the wider South Hams. It is a charity market rather than a farmers’ market, so the produce tends to be home-baked rather than commercial. Prices are very reasonable, partly because it is all run by volunteers and partly because the underlying purpose is fundraising.

There is usually live period music drifting around the square, often a recorder consort or a folk singer in costume. The Mayor of Totnes attends the opening day of the season in full robes, sometimes accompanied by the town crier.

When the Charter Market runs

The 2026 season runs every Tuesday from early May through to late September, 9am to 3pm. The opening week is usually marked with a small civic ceremony, and the closing week sees a charity total announced. Other Totnes markets sit alongside it through the week, but the Tuesday Charter Day is the one with the costumes.

Note that the Charter Day Market is separate from the very good Friday and Saturday Totnes Market in the Civic Hall and on the Square, which is a year-round affair with antiques, crafts, vintage clothes and an excellent food court. If you are in town midweek though, the Tuesday is the one to time your visit for.

How to make the most of a Tuesday visit

• Arrive by 10am for the best atmosphere and the freshest baking. Stalls start packing up around 2.30pm.
• Park at the North Street or Heath’s Nursery long-stay car parks; both are a five-minute walk to the square.
• Bring cash. Many stalls now take cards but plenty are still cash only, and it speeds things up.
• Talk to the traders. The volunteers are friendly and full of stories about the town. The Elizabethan Society also sells a small handbook explaining the history of the market.
• Combine with lunch at one of the cafes on Fore Street. The Curator Cafe and Brioche are both within a minute’s walk.

The wider Elizabethan tradition in Totnes

The Charter Market is not the only piece of Elizabethan tradition in town. The Society also runs the Totnes Orange Races every August (a quirky street race involving citrus fruit and the ghost of Sir Francis Drake), Christmas events, and occasional civic processions. The town’s many genuinely Tudor buildings, including the gabled merchant houses on Fore Street and the Elizabethan Museum on the High Street, mean that the costumes do not feel out of place at all.

What makes the Totnes Elizabethan Charter Day quietly special is that it is not a performance staged for tourists. The traders are local, the money raised stays in town, and most of the people in the square are there to do the weekly shop and have a chat. You happen to be welcome to join in. If you want to plan the rest of your visit, our guide to A Perfect Weekend in Totnes can show you how to fit a Tuesday market into a full 48-hour itinerary.