OXFORD is set to host a farmers’ market every week after stalls were opened at a new event yesterday.

More than 20 stallholders took part in the first farmers’ market to be held at Oxford Castle. It will become a regular fixture every second and fourth Thursday of the month.

It now means there is a farmers’ market in Oxford city centre every Thursday, with the market in Gloucester Green held on the other Thursdays.

Together with an array of vegetables and meat on sale, stalls offered fudge, smoked fish and cooking oil produced in and around Oxford.

Richard Lainchbury brought along a selection of mushrooms from Moreton Pinkney, near Banbury.

He said: “I have been going to Gloucester Green for a long time and I am pleased there is another one in Oxford.”

Rebecca Dawes, of Foxbury Farm, near Brize Norton, brought a selection of meat to the market.

She said: “It is exciting to have this market which will bring people into the area.”

The market comes a month after the Castle’s second food and wine festival, opened by celebrity chef Raymond Blanc, which attracted more than 10,000 people.

At the festival Mr Blanc, whose Great Milton restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons boasts two Michelin stars, said Britain was finally discovering local, fresh produce and congratulated Oxfordshire for “taking a lead in food festivals”.

Market manager Jack McLeod already runs markets in a number of locations, including Headington.

He said: “I have got great support from the stalls.

“We have got about 25 of them and there is a great range.

“There is potential to grow this market and hopefully we can work with Gloucester Green.

“The benefit is we are giving Oxford a market every Thursday.”

East Oxford resident Nicholas Lawrence, 68, said: “I prefer shopping at farmers’ markets than shopping in supermarkets.”

Roly Puzey, from Little Wittenham, was selling free-range lamb and sheepskin rugs.

He attends nine farmers’ markets a month.

He added: “The local ones are the most important as they keep our costs down, so we hope this will be a great success.”

Duncan Paget, of DS Paget, who brings his vegetables to markets in Abingdon, Headington and Didcot, said: “People want to come to farmers’ markets because they have confidence in what they are purchasing.

“As producers we have to look the customers in the eye and convince them what we have got is very good.”

Kate Bitmead, whose family runs the Old Farmhouse Bakery at Meadow Farm, in Steventon, near Abingdon, said: “The stalls look beautiful and we need to get people in to support this market from the very start so the producers keep coming back.”

The Oxford Castle Farmers’ Market will run from 9am to 2pm each fortnight in the castle’s courtyard.