fairs

fairs, as periodic gatherings for the sale of goods and services including the hiring of labourers, developed in the Middle Ages. They brought together traders from much greater distances than the markets held weekly or more frequently in many towns and villages. Markets dealt in local and seasonal produce; fairs provided the opportunity to buy a wider range of products.

Fairs were held at regular intervals for a fixed number of days. They were licensed by charter, usually from the crown. In turn, they were highly profitable to magnates and corporations through stall rents. Some fairs became famous for their size and their specializations. These fairs drew traders and customers from many parts of the country and even from overseas. Examples include Stourbridge (Cambs.) for dried fish and cloth, St Ives (Cambs.) for wool, hides, and cloth, and Boston (Lincs.) for wine and wool.

Such large, temporary concentrations of strangers challenged the normal mechanisms for maintaining law and order. Special courts of piepowder (pieds poudrés: dusty feet) dispensed rapid justice to breakers of contracts, cheats, or those who behaved rowdily.

Most fairs provided entertainments but these remained only marginal until the major commercial changes of the 18th cent. These changes diminished the trade of fairs because of the expansion of shopping facilities and the regularity of deliveries of goods and services made possible by improved roads and the canal network.

Fairs continued for seasonal agricultural trade in grain, cattle, and sheep into the 19th cent.; and the custom of hiring workers also persisted. However, even these features declined as railways made deliveries of farm produce to major markets reliable and other forms of labour recruitment became the norm.

Only a limited number of fairs remained by the time the royal commission of 1888 examined the role of fairs and markets. Its evidence indicated that fairs had become associated with entertainment and sometimes with disorder. Many fairs with ancient charters continue uninterrupted to the present time, often held in town centres. The Hoppings, which claim to be Europe's largest travelling fair, take place every June in Newcastle upon Tyne on the Town Moor. During the 20th cent. the Showmen's Guild collaborated with local government to control traffic and ensure public safety.

Ian John Ernest Keil