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Question
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I am doing a study on the Downton Cuckoo Fair and would like to know if there are any similar events held in any other areas of the county (even if they don't have the same name).
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Question asked on
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29 December 2003
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Answer
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I am sure that were are several such local events but no others have survived. The arrival of the cuckoo was doubtless seen as the onset of good weather and the Downton tradition of opening the gate to let the cuckoo through seems to support this. The Downton fair was held on 23rd April and more recent tradition seems to have been told against the people of Downton. It would seem that they had shut the cuckoo in Downton pound and were surprised when it flew out over the top. This is a version of the type of story told by one village to show the stupidity of another. Similar ones from other parts of the country tell of villages that penned the cuckoo so that it should always be Spring and there are certainly a few fields called Cuckoo Pen in the country.
Factually the Downton fairs are first recorded in 1249 and in 1289 a fair was claimed on the eve, day and morrow of St. Laurence (9th-11th April). Early fairs died out and in 1676 two annual fairs were granted on 12th April and 21st September. When the term Cuckoo Fair came to be used seems to be unknown, as is any possible links with pagan festivities. The Cuckoo Princess only dates from the revival of the fair in 1980 but there may have been an earlier Cuckoo King.
The Spring fair at Mere was called the Cuckoo Fair in the 16th century and the Cuckoo King is first recorded in 1565. There also seems to have been a Cuckoo Prince, who became the King in the following year. I don't know enough about the duties of the Cuckoo King but the function might bear comparison to the killing of the wren or the election of one person who was allowed considerable license and power during the three days of a fair.
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Bibliography
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The Victoria History of Wiltshire, Volume 11. OUP, 1980, 0 19 722751 1
Downton: 7000 years of an English village, by David Waymouth. Downton Millennium Book Fund, 1999, 0 9536109 0 X
The Folklore of Wiltshire, by Ralph Whitlock. Batsford, 1976, 0 7134 3086 9
