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Question
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I have come across mop fairs in connection with Marlborough. Could you please tell me what mop fairs were?
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Question asked on
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04 July 2011
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Answer
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Mop fairs were hiring fairs at which labourers and servants were hired for a period of one year. People looking for a new job would stand in rows holding, or wearing a token of their occupation. For example, a carter would carry a whip, a shepherd a crook or a piece of wool, a cowman a piece of straw and a domestic servant a mop. It is from the latter that the name 'mop fair' originated. The fairs were held in the period between Michaelmas and Martinmas - October and November.
The fairs began after the time of the Black Death in England, when labour was scarce because so many had died and a paid system was replacing the old feudal system of land for labour. The 1st Statute of Labourers of 1351 inhibited the movement of labour but granted the right of a farm worker to offer himself for hire in the nearest market town on the day after Michaelmas Day (30th September). In 1677 another statute endorsed the yearly bond made between the employer and the employee at these fairs, which were then often referred to as statute, or stattie, fairs.
After a man or woman had been hired their new employer would give them a fastenpenny, or earnest money. This may have once been a penny but by the 18th century it was a shilling (5 pence) and by the 19th century it was 5 shillings (25 pence) for a head shepherd, carter or cowman, half a crown (12 and a half pence) for a secondary man and one shilling for a boy. They were then able to sample the delights of the fair on one of the few free days they would have enjoyed in the year.
The fairs normally took place in the market place of the town and in early centuries could have been a reasonable way for men to change their job. By the 19th century it had become demeaning to humans with people paraded like livestock before prospective buyers. The job seekers would have dressed themselves in their best but many would not have been hired and would have to try their luck at another fair. The high point of the fairs came in the mid 19th century when the greatest number of labourers were employed on farms. By this time there were many complaints about the rowdiness, drunkenness and debauchery that took place at mop fairs. As always it was not the people taking [part in this who wrote about it and we have to remember that this was probably the only opportunity for labourers to let off steam during the year.
Mop fairs continued into the early 20th century but had ended by the First World War. The ones that continued became purely pleasure fairs, as is the case with Marlborough which has two, Little Mop and Big Mop, a week apart. The High Street is closed to traffic and is occupied by a fun fair.
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Bibliography
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The English Fair by David Kerr Cameron. Sutton Publishing, 1998, 0 7509 1772 5
