Midsomer Norton Fair Day

Midsomer Norton Fair day, still remembered by older residents of the town, actually has its roots in the granting of a Royal Charter by Henry III to Hugh de Vivonia in 1242 to be held on the 3^rd April.

The Society is researching the history of the fair and trying to locate a facsimile copy of the original documents relating to the charters given to Midsomer Norton.

On the 1^st August 1248 a further charter was granted, moving the date of the fair to 24^th June. By 1357 a further reference is made to Reginald fitz Herbert holding “a quarter of a fair on the Nativity of St John the Baptist - this being mid-summers’ day". Despite all these references to Midsummer's Day, it is not known when or why the date moved to the 25^th April.

From medieval times to at least 1910, the fair operated more as a cattle fair, where dairy cows were sold and sheep penned from the island as far as Stone’s Cross. Horses were sold outside the Hollies.

However, by the end of the 19^th century the entertainment element began to take over in the form of a stream-driven ‘Fun Fair’. It was presumably for this reason that the Highway Committee recommended in 1892 that the fair be held in a field. The fair seems to have caused much annoyance to the shop trade as well as to traffic. In 1893 a compromise was eventually reached whereby the street could be used, but that the surveyor was to ‘receive the tolls for the shows which visit this fair to be held at Norton the 25^th inst'. On this occasion the surveyor was able to collect £5.4.0 from the tolls at the fair. Nevertheless, an application was made to the Duchy to view the original provision of the fair charger in June 1895 and in 1911 new arrangements were made.

Although the cattle fair seems to have disappeared sometime after the Great War (1918), the fun fair continued to flourish, and in 1921 was extended from one to two days. However, in 1961 the question of the closure of the fair was again considered in relation to the Fairs Act of 1871, which then resulted in its final removal from the High Street. A new site was offered in the field adjoining the Hillside Avenue housing site, but it was eventually held elsewhere. Later venues included the car park at the North Road Recreation Ground and on West Hill Gardens Recreation Ground, but with its centuries-old link with the centre of Midsomer Norton severed, the fair died an ignominious death.

Whilst the Society hopes to bring Midsomer Norton Fair to the town - on the nearest Saturday to 24^th June (Midsummer's Day) - currently this project is much larger than we as a single organisation can support.

We are working to establish links with community organisations in the town, in the hope that we can pool our resources and resurrect the Fair Day as an event for the whole family, celebrating our heritage and bringing the community together - as it did in days of old.