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"The sun was shining both sides of the hedges and Bungay May Fair was close at
hand, which the celebrities were looking forward to, thinking they'd have some
fun and see the Boss's pony and cart sold, and take a hand in running up the
price". - from the Rabbit Skin Cap. Ask any old man what he remembers about
Bungay May Fair and the chances are you'll have to wait for the laughter to
subside before he actually tells you anything.
Then he might tell you about the old chimney sweep who bought a pony that
kicked the bottom out of his cart halfway down Bungay high street! And blind
Joe Kitt, standing beside the fairground gate with his wind-up gramophone and
his old lady and his enamel begging bowl...and carts and horses and sticks of
rock and bonnetted ladies.
May 14th was, for hundreds of years, a very special day in Bungay; a high day,
fixed in the calendar and only to be moved if the 14th fell on the seventh day.
It was an English country fair. Horse-dealers Romanies, didekais and rogues -
they travelled miles at the sniff of a deal, probable stopping at a forge on
the road to Bungay to get a lame horse lamed in the other leg, just to balance
things up a bit! It seems that many a horse touched up with shoe-black changed
hands at Bungay Fair.
There was other livestock too and an auction was always held on the morning of
the 14th. There would also be 'dead-stock' - mainly carts and harness - and
quite a bit of barter on the side! At one time, Bungay was probably a hiring
fair too, with local farmers taking on the best men to work their land through
the coming seasons - "On Lady Day the old men say, today you're lost or found."
Business apart, Bungay Fair was a gathering, a ribald meeting of friends and
foes, a blow-out - and one of the few available during the whole year to
hardworked and poorly laid farm labourers. There are stories of farm-workers
from surrounding villages walking miles to Bungay on May Day, with
new-bonnetted wives and scrubbed children. And, at the end of the day, the
whole family, probable the worse for wear, would walk home again.
The fair was held at Skinner's Farm, at the bottom of St. John's Road, for as
long as anyone remembers, although it may well have taken place on the Common
at an earlier date. John Baldry, author of The Rabbit Skin Cap, wrote "Then
come the 14th May - Bungay May Fair day - which had been held that day for
seven hundred years, so my father always told me. He wouldn't have missed
Bungay May Fair - it being the only day out he had in the whole year."
There was usually a boxing booth at the fair and 70 year-old Mr. John Davey of
Ditchingham can recall the feats of local worthies like Porky Ward and Tom
Smith, battling to last three rounds against a six-foot negro in order to win
£1!
Apart from the clamour and gaiety down on Skinner's Farm, the effect of the
day on the town itself must have been remarkable. The pubs were open all day,
horses galloped in the streets...it was because of this that Bungay schools
were always closed on the 14th whenever it fell during the week.
According to Mrs. Mary Spinks, wife of the retired Ellingham blacksmith, it was
simply too dangerous for children to be on the streets on May Fair day;
horse-dealers would give their ponies trial gallops up and down the High Street
to impress potential buyers - "so Bungay children were always hoping the 14th
would fall on a week-day so they could have a day off school."
It was the Great Day, the different day. Bungay was bedlam. Everyone was in
showbiz Hoppy Glutton, Lardy Cracknell, Blind Joe Kitt and all...
In 1934, the last Bungay Fair was held and no-one seems to know exactly why.
Mr. H. White, the retired Bungay newsagent, worked as a clerk for Sidney J.
Owles, who was the May Fair auctioneer up until the outbreak of the first World
War. He remembers being at the fairground at 6.30 on the morning of the 14th to
begin a very important day's clerking. In Mr. White's opinion, Bungay Fair was
never quite the same after the war; he thinks the closure of Bungay's weekly
livestock market, combined with the decreasing numbers of livestock, may have
something to do with the Fair's disappearance from the calendar (it used to be
listed in Old Moore's Almanac too!)
But, for better or for worse, Bungay lost its fair and, some ten years later,
the April race meeting on the Common went too - and the place has never been
the same since.
Now there's a Bungay Fair again, at Mettingham Castle, two miles from the town,
on May 15th and 16th. Horses, fiddle music, woodsmoke into the night...
(WAVENEY CLARION)
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