Interview: Meet the woman behind Taunton Independent Market

She’s the woman behind the flourishing Taunton Independent Market that regularly brings a weekend buzz to the town.

Michelle started to organise the first event on Castle Green in 2019.

She says: "I began to put things in place only to discover I had breast cancer.

"I had to delay it for a year while I went through six months of chemo, radiotherapy and a mastectomy.

"The first market was on March 8, 2020.

"We had one market, then Covid lockdown struck.

"It was tough, but we did a home delivery service for six months.

"As a single mum, it was the only way to keep my head afloat."

When the markets started again that September, there were huge restrictions.

"Everybody had to wear masks and the traders’ stalls had to be separated out," recalls Michelle.

"It took 18 months to build business up to the level of the first market in 2019.

"But we’ve since gone from strength to strength with 60 traders every month and between 5,000 and 7,000 visitors to every market.

"It’s bringing people into the town.

"Businesses say they notice a big increase into the town when the market’s on."

The markets are on the second Sunday of the month and, since last year, on the last Saturday of the month.

From an early age, Michelle lived in Stoke St Gregory, where her grandfather owned the Rose and Crown.

Her mum’s cousin was the flamboyant TV chef Keith Floyd.

"He took me on a pub crawl in his home town, Wiveliscombe, when I was 13," laughs Michelle.

"I was on soft drinks, but it was a nostalgic tour for him.

"Afterwards, he fell asleep on my granddad’s sofa.

"He was a really fun character."

For a couple of years, Michelle, who attended Heathfield School, worked down the road from the family pub at the Royal Oak.

She then attended IT college in Taunton, where she got the taste for organising events when visiting an expo at the NEC.

"I started to look for jobs and came across the hotel booking agency BSI, where I worked from the age of 17 to 21," adds Michelle.

"We used to go on trips to vet hotels in Paris, Kenya, the Ritz in London.

"It broadened my horizons.

"Then they asked me to run a new satellite office in London.

"After that I worked as a sales and marketing manager for Hotelscene in Bristol, winning some million-pound contracts."

There followed a change of career into banking, although she lost her job when she became pregnant and took five years out to care for her children Bridie, now 23, and Jack, 19.

She then spent seven years as sales and marketing manager at the Mount Somerset Hotel, Henlade, running events such as wedding shows and ladies’ indulgence evenings.

"I loved it and saw it through its refurbishment and the opening of the spa," she says.

"Then I was made redundant when a new hotel group came in and did everything through its head office."

After a brief period in sales and marketing for DJ company Future Media and local wedding photographer Ben Simmonds, Michelle branched out on her own to run wedding shows and then ladies’ indulgence evenings at various venues.

She adds: "I organised a festival at The Brewhouse, probably the biggest disaster I’ve ever put on as we had to charge an entrance fee, which didn’t go down well with the public.

"I was then approached by The Castle to organise a food festival in 2017, which was really successful.

"I did it for a couple of years."

It was at this time that her friend, Willow Reed, who ran The Plough pub in Taunton at the time, suggested Michelle should organise a regular weekend market in Taunton - and the rest is history.

Since then, she has put on markets in Bridgwater, where she has also planned two Pride events.

A weekly market is due to start in Weston next month, along with a once-a-month weekend market.

In her spare time, Michelle enjoys going out to pubs and restaurants and describes herself as a "rock chick", who has been to gigs to see acts such as AC/DC, Snow Patrol, Duran Duran, and Guns N' Roses.

She is also soon off to see Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, and Oasis.