Residents and shoppers were treated to a potted history of High Wycombe's medieval market when the mayor took the microphone to deliver a speech in the old High Street yesterday morning.

Cllr Khalil Ahmed guided onlookers through the origins of the 700-year-old trading post, which received a royal charter to trade as a market and played a big part in the town's rise.

A perfect waypoint 28 miles between Oxford and London, High Wycombe became a magnet for travellers and those looking to buy and sell.

And Cllr Ahmed gave a history on the important resource, which continues to trade today, when he addressed crowds atop the platform by the famous Red Lion statue on Saturday afternoon.

He said: "The market is the original source of Wycombe's prosperity. In medieval times, the market was regulated. If a town wanted to have market, they had to get permission from the king in the form of a charter.

"In theory, no two markets could be within a day’s wlak of each other. So if one town had a market, it had a monopoly for miles around.

"In fact the market enabled the town to raise sufficient money to pay for a charter for a mayor – which was less than 150 after London but 250 years before Aylesbury.

“To this day, the Mayor and chartered trustees walk through the market once a year, talking to the traders. We acknowledge with thanks the fact that it is the market which provided funds for the election of the first mayor.” 

Cllr Ahmed said he wanted to raise the profile of the historic market with the speech on the platform by the famous Red Lion statue, where Sir Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli have previously addressed.