Tewkesbury Mop Fair
Surfing the web is good. Especially good when you find things out that you didn’t know before. Take Monday morning for instance - there I was having a quick browse before heading off to work when I noticed Tewkesbury Mop Fair was happening that evening. Apparently the Danters were attending, which couldn’t be bad news, so off I trotted later that day.
For those uneducated in such matters, Mop Fairs date back 700 years, traditionally held in many English towns around Michaelmas Day. Farm workers, craftsmen and servants would attend, carrying an item signifying their trade. Those with no specific skills would carry a mop head, hence Mop Fair. Employers would mingle with the crowds, discussing terms and hiring staff for the coming year. People who had been hired would be given a small token amount of money by their new boss, replace the item signifying their trade with bright coloured ribbons, then spend their new found wealth at the fair sideshows and stalls.
Tewkesbury still holds its Mop Fair annually, with a focus rather more on the sideshows and rides rather than doing business deals. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing when examples of some of the best rides in the country attend of course!
The fair seemed to take over the entirety of Tewkesbury
