Already in the early thirteenth century the greater markets and fairs were held partly under cover.
1222. The King to the Sheriff of Gloucester greeting.
We command you that you do not suffer the market which hitherto has been held at Maurice de Gant's manor of Randwick, and which is to the injury of our town and market of Bristol, and of other neighbouring markets, as we have surely learnt. And that you cause the houses built there on account of the market to be removed without delay. So that neither ships come thither nor a market is there held otherwise than was done in the time of the Lord John, King, our father.
Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), I. 499.
1303. To the Bailiff of Sandwich.
Order to cause a house of the king in that town constructed for the king's fair there … to be repaired by the view and testimony of John de Hoo and Thomas de Shelvyng.
Cal. of Close, 1302-7, 55.
1345. At a congregation of the mayor and aldermen, holden on the Friday next before the feast of St. George the Martyr in the 19th year of the reign of King Edward III., it was ordered for the common advantage of all the citizens dwelling in the city (of London), and of others resorting to the same … that all foreign[9] poulterers bringing poultry to the city should take it to the Leaden Hall, and sell it there, between Matins and the hour of Prime, to the reputable men of the city and their servants for their own eating; and after the hour of Prime the rest of their poultry that should remain unsold they might sell to cooks, regratresses (retail saleswomen), and such other persons as they might please; it being understood that they were to take no portion of their poultry out of the market to their hostels (lodgings) on pain of losing the same.
Riley, Memorials of London, 221.