{"id":4829,"date":"2025-10-10T08:30:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=4829"},"modified":"2025-09-23T10:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:59:09","slug":"all-the-fun-of-the-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2025\/10\/10\/all-the-fun-of-the-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"All the Fun of the Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everybody loves the fair and we here at Dorset History Centre are no exception<\/a> so, on an unusually quiet day, Chris decided to have a perusal of our public catalogue and a poke about in our repositories to see if he could find out anything of interest about the many fairs to have graced our county over the years…<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Being from Portland myself, and therefore a \u2018slinger\u2019, I have fond childhood memories of Portland fair from back in the days when many of the rides were located on Baker\u2019s Ground and the \u2018Eggs in Space\u2019 was typically found near Brandy Row and challenged one\u2019s pockets with its astronomical cost of 20p.<\/p>\n

While browsing through our online catalogue, I was over the moon to find what appeared to be a poster advertising the fair from 1918 and highly surprised to find that it was held on behalf of the British Red Cross.\u00a0 Our archivist had really ramped up the diligence quotient in the dating of this poster determining that the only year in which V. H. G. Bernard held the post of Rear Admiral on which the 6th<\/sup> and 7th<\/sup> of November fell on a Wednesday and Thursday respectively was 1918.\u00a0 Although the Portland fair of my youth was more typically held on the 5th<\/sup> and 6th<\/sup>, I remained sanguine.<\/p>\n

Alas, it turned out to be a poster for a <\/em>fair rather than the <\/em>fair, but still, for two glorious days in the late Autumn of 1918, slingers could make a choice between the two.<\/p>\n

\"\"
“It’s the wrong fair Gromit!” [D-2402\/6\/1<\/a>]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>Falling through one of the many time warps we have here in our repositories, I next came across an extract from Owen\u2019s \u2018New Book of Fairs\u2019 which was published \u2018by the king\u2019s authority\u2019 in 1824 (RON\/29\/6<\/a>).\u00a0 The Eggs in Space had not yet been invented but the fair at Corfe Castle, which was held on May 12th<\/sup> and October 29th<\/sup>, boasted \u2018hogs and toys\u2019 whereas Shroton fair, on September 26th<\/sup>, was for \u2018horses, bullocks, sheep and all sorts of haberdashery\u2019.<\/p>\n

What is now perceived as the traditional fairground element consisting of Waltzers and big wheels didn\u2019t reach the fore until well into the twentieth century and fairs typically began their journeys as trade fairs and those from surrounding villages would often make the journey into town with shops staying open for visitors to settle their annual accounts as well as making purchases from the travelling vendors.<\/p>\n

However, they weren\u2019t strictly mercantile and regularly offered further attractions such as singing and dancing alongside other festivities that were often peculiar to that particular fair. \u00a0Fordington fair, which was held on St George\u2019s Day, typically involved a sheep being roasted with spectators bidding on slices of lamb in bread rolls.\u00a0 A leg of lamb was also sent to the Prince of Wales as the fair was held on his land (RON\/29\/1<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I next alighted on an article by Maynard White, published in The Lady in 1971 (RON\/29\/8<\/a>), and expounding on the illustrious history of Pack Monday, taking apparent delight in the era of the cheap jack, hawkers touting inferior goods, who would line Cheap Street, flogging their second-rate wares.\u00a0 According to the article, Pack Monday is rumoured to have derived its name from workers packing up their tools on completion of the abbey in 1490.\u00a0 However, Sherborne\u2019s Michaelmas Fair had roots dating back to the reign of Edward I so the association with the completion of the abbey may be due to the workers wanting to complete the work in time to attend the fair.<\/p>\n

\"\"
They\u2019ll be cock-a-hoop if they win. Youngsters enjoying the hoop-la at Pack Monday (15th October 1984) (D-DPA\/1\/SH\/92<\/a>)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maynard\u2019s description of the fair is effervescent,<\/p>\n

\u2018everything under the sun was set out for sale from hot dogs to lace curtains to dancing dolls\u2019, there were \u2018dodgem cars, gondolas and speedway.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, Pack Monday, which continues to be held on the first Monday after October 10th<\/sup>, old Michaelmas Day, typically boasts over 250 stalls and a traditional fairground making it one of the county\u2019s most impressive survivors and this year it will be held on October 13th<\/sup>. See you there?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everybody loves the fair and we here at Dorset History Centre are no exception so, on an unusually quiet day, Chris decided to have a perusal of our public catalogue and a poke about in our repositories to see if he could find out anything of interest about the many fairs to have graced our… Read more All the Fun of the Fair<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[82,704,705,109],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4833,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions\/4833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}