One winter weekend while taking a stroll around Manor Farm in Ruislip, Caron Pook decided it would be nice to run a small Christmas market in the historic Great Barn. Five years later, the Duck Pond Market has grown in size but continues to stay true to Caron’s simple philosophy of only leasing space to traders who sell products that are interesting, local, ethical or sustainable.

As I walked into the Great Barn I was met with the usual hustle and bustle of Duck Pond Market days. Colourful bunting hung from 13th Century beams and as Bing Crosby and Michael Buble serenaded shoppers, albeit on a stereo, I got talking to the stallholders who have pitched up since it first opened.

First stop: Lorna Kyle’s handmade card stall. Lorna’s cards and prints are inspired by her customers. “I love doing it,” she said.

“The Duck Pond is fantastic for people like me because I am not online, but to have a regular market is brilliant because I have built up a real customer base,” she explained.

Annie Parsons, of Parsons Preserves, agrees. “I have customers who come back and find me each month and who I have built a rapport with.

“All the customers here are lovely. There is a really friendly atmosphere and I think people really like that.”

Living just down the road in Ladygate Lane, Ruislip, jewellery maker Keely Jacob loves the local factor.

“I’ve lived in Ruislip all my life,” she said. “I remember coming to craft fairs here when I was six years old and thinking they were really good.

“That was missing in Ruislip before Caron came along and the market might have grown bigger but it still feels cosy,” she said.

Uxbridge based ceramic artist Leslie Parrott took early retirement from the cement industry because he yearned for practical work, so built a studio in his garden in 2003.

“I belong to three pottery groups which all do shows, including Hillingdon Artists.

“Here there is something different every time you come,” he said.

Camden market stallholder, Emma Burn, lives in Ruislip, sells hammocks and blankets through her company, Well Hung Hammocks, and said the fame of the Duck Pond has spread.

She said: “Over the last few years it’s really grown in terms of who knows about the Duck Pond. Before it was only local people, now people I see at Camden say they travel from across London for the market.”

Since that first market back in 2008, father-and-son team, David and Nicholas Palmer, have opened up Lomito steak restaurant in Green Lane, Northwood, gaining customers from the steak lovers who first found them on market days.

“There is such a high quality of food sold and I’m sure that plays a massive part in the success,” David said.

Lindsay Drabwell has an expert knowledge of ethical children’s clothing which she sells as DaisychainBaby.

“The first Duck Pond Market was our first market,” she said.

“We had only really set up a little while beforehand and it was such a success for us that it really got our business going.”

At cake company Miriam’s Munchies, Cathy Smith was a market regular in Pinner when Caron scouted her. Thanks to her market experience, she now helps run the Duck Pond Farmers’ Market which takes place on the first Sunday of every month.

“I have met a lot of my suppliers through doing the markets,” she said. “I now get all of the dairy [products] I use direct from a local farm, and I stock my cakes in cafes in Harrow and Ealing. I couldn’t have done any of that without the market.”

Eight years ago Stephen Hinds swapped his job in the family jewellery business F. Hinds for farming in Chalfont St Giles. Since then his award winning Flexmore Farm meat, including pork and water buffalo, has sold at the Duck Pond. “We were really just starting to sell to the public in 2008, and the markets have been fantastic for us.”

Caron said: “I am so proud of how far we've come from that small first 'one off' market and how we have been adopted by the local community and further afield.

"It's so much fun running Duck Pond Market, and I really hope we are still here in another five years.

"I'd also like to think we are opening peoples eyes to shopping locally, knowing the source of your purchases, and the value of supporting small businesses in the community."

n The Duck Pond Market’s fifth anniversary Christmas market is on Saturday and Sunday, December 14 and 15, from 10am-3pm.