Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Appendix 13: Fairs held in parishes of the study area 1660-1840 1
Alcester:
January Fair: Tues. before 29 Jan. 2
March Fairs or First Spring Fairs: Tues. before 18 March and Tues. before
25 March 3
April Fair: 3 rd Tues. in April 4
May Fair or Other Spring Fair: Around 18 May. Mainly livestock sales in
the nineteenth century. 5
July Fair: Last Tues. in July 6
Michaelmas Mop Fair or Statute Fair: Statute or Mop fair for hiring of
servants on Wed. 9 Oct. in 1754, with ox roast and girls’ foot race for a
holland shift. 7 23 Sept. in 1761 8 Before Michaelmas c.1782. 9 September
Fair 3 rd Tues. in Sept. 10 Tues. before and Tues. after Michaelmas in 1854. 11
12
In October later in the nineteenth century.
October Fair: Not the same as the Mop Fair. Nicknamed Stuffgut Fair
c.1810. Changed from 6 Oct. to 17 Oct. and six following days in 1752. 13
December Fair: 1 st Tues. in Dec. 14
Aston Cantlow 15
Aston Cantlow Wake: around 6 July, c.1850
Mop Fair: eight days before Old Michaelmas in early nineteenth century 16
Little Alne Wake: Whit Sunday, pre-1850
Newnham Wake: Trinity Sunday, pre-1850
Pathlow Wake: Easter Sunday, c. 1850
Shelfield Wake: Sept., pre-1850
Wilmcote Wake: around 30 June, within the octave of St Peter, c. 1850
Wilmcote Wake: around 11 Nov., c. 1850
1 Information is mainly from VCH Warwickshire and VCH Worcestershire supplemented with
information from other sources.
2 1854 PO Directory of Warks.
3 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 6 March 1760 and 12 March 1761. 1845 & 1854 PO Directories of
Warks. and VCH Warwickshire, vol. iii, p.13. Berrow’s Worcester Journal 6 Sept 1753 states that the
First Spring Fair will be held on the Tues. before Lady Day.
4 1845 and 1854 PO Directories of Warks.
5 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 6 Sept 1753 states that the other Spring Fair will be every 18 May. In
the mid-nineteenth century it was still 18 May (as reported in 1845 &1854 PO Directories of Warks.).
In 1807 it was changed (just for that year) from Mon 18 May to Sat 16 May to avoid a clash with
Evesham Fair, (as reported in Berrow’s Worcester Journal 14 May 1807).
6 1845 and 1854 PO Directories of Warks.
7 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 3 Oct 1754.
8 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 1 Oct. 1761.
9 WaRO, DR259/45/14, Aston Cantlow settlements.
10 1845 and 1854 PO Directories of Warks.
11 1854 PO Directory of Warks.
12 VCH Warwickshire, vol. iii, p. 13.
13 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 27 Aug 1752 and 6 Sept 6 1753 and 4 Oct 1781. Also 1845 and 1854
PO Directories of Warks.
14 1845 and 1854 PO Directories of Warks.
15 Aston Cantlow information is from VCH Warwickshire, vol. iii, p. 34 unless stated otherwise.
16 WaRO, DR259/45/46, Aston Cantlow settlements.
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