All The Fun Of The Fair

There is nothing quite like the joy of a brightly painted, brilliantly lit English fair with excited children grasping their candyfloss sticks and toffee apples, young men trying to win a prize at the darts stall and impress their girlfriends by handing them a giant cuddly toy and dads sportingly agreeing to take a turn on the big wheel even though they are still feeling the effects of a heavy lunch. Yes, we just love all the fun of the fair.

- Bernard Bale

The traditional English fair has been a part of our heritage for centuries. Nobody really knows how it started, but clearly it has developed over the years from its origins as a market. There were weekly and daily markets even in Roman times but when the Middle Ages arrived those markets that were not daily events became more specialised and much bigger.

There were mop fairs at which workers presented themselves for hire. The “mop” part came because domestics would show what they did by carrying a mop, but there were other forms of employment represented at these fairs and the men and women would carry a tool or something symbolic of their work. Shepherds held a crook or a tuft of wool, cowmen brought wisps of straw, and dairymaids carried a milking stool or pail. Prospective employers would look them over and, if they liked what they saw, they would hire them for the coming year, handing them a shilling to seal the deal.

Of course, markets and fairs of that sort attracted big crowds who wanted something to eat and to have some fun so it was not long before games started to appear as well as buskers and other entertainers including animal acts and attractions. The early fairground rides started to appear as well but they were a long way off the computer-driven super-rides of today.

Stratford-upon-Avon, Tewkesbury, Banbury and Warwick are among a number of English towns which still hold mop fairs although the tradition now only lives on by name and by the presence of a fun fair in the town centre.

There were also trade fairs, of course, and many of them still exist. Appleby Fair in Westmorland is a great example. Traditionally a horse fair which began life in the late 17th century, it attracts vast numbers of travellers. Other trade fairs seem to have gone in a different direction and are now held in major venues with little sign of any fairground rides.