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September
2003
All
Along, Down Along
Widecombe
Fair is world renowned due to that wonderful folk song of the
same title, and is always held on the second Tuesday of September
each year, at Widecombe in the Moor, on Dartmoor, in Devon.
This year (2003) it falls on Tuesday 9th September.
But what of the origins of this country institution.... and Uncle
Tom Cobley and all.
Hard Winters
In many towns and villages on and around Dartmoor the autumn
cattle, sheep and pony sales (known as fairs) were - and still are
- an important fixture in the agricultural calendar.
Autumn was a time when the moorland farmer had a chance to reduce
his stock in readiness for the winter.
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| "Uncle
Tom Cobley" arrives at Widecombe Fair |
There
were no means of transporting vaste amounts of hay and straw around
the country, so farmers were only able to winter the amount of stock
they had fodder enough to feed through those long winter days. And
those winters were much harsher than they appear to be today.
As well as reducing their stock, they also needed to exchange rams,
and even bulls and stallions, to maintain a healthy and vibrant
breeding flock or herd.
This would encourage farmers from away and - according to the song
- as far away as Spreyton and Copplestone, when Bill Brewer, Jan
Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davey, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawk, and
Uncle Tom Cobley and All came to Widecombe Fair to purchase stock,
an area where good healthy stock could be obtained.
By taking the stock to the food (straw and hay in the Crediton area
being more abundant) made good sense.
The Widecombe Whitefaced Dartmoor Sheep was a speciality breed,
local to this district, and were always in demand. They are still
considered good breeding stock and excellent mothers.
So over hundreds of years each of these fairs grew - and Widecombe
Fair became a very successful market.
A Yard Of Sheep
In 1850 some of the local gentry decided to celebrate
the event by holding a dinner after a particularly successful fair.
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| Widecombe
Village |
In
those days all the livestock were penned and sold on the Village
Green - this led to the saying that at Widecombe, sheep were sold
'by the yard', meaning of course the churchyard!
The fair continued uninterrupted until the outbreak of World War
II when, in 1939, it was cancelled only to be revived again in 1945.
During
those six years the farmers had found other markets to sell their
livestock, so Widecombe Fair developed into a show rather than a
sale.
Local fields were borrowed for the day, classes for the showing
of horses, ponies and sheep were introduced, local sports for adults
and children alike were introduced, tug of war contests, gymkhana
and much more became the order of the day.
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widecombe
fair 2003 >> |
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