Staine Hundred
The new season of meetings began on Wednesday with a talk by Honor Ridout on
Stourbridge Fair. The first record of the Fair is in 1211 but it may have
started earlier and it continued, with steadily declining importance, until
1933. It was an enormous commercial Fair which attracted traders from all over
England. It was held on the area between the River Cam and Newmarket Road, with
Garlic Row being the centre thoroughfare. In the earlier days it was well
outside Cambridge near the Leper Hospital whose monks organized it until it was
taken over by the Town Authorities. The Leper Hospital had gone by the end of
the 13th century but the Chapel remained and was used for storage and later as
one of the 25-30 outlets for alcohol! The Fair began on BartholomewÕs Day,
August 24th and ended on September 29. First the carpenters would move in to
put up the booths which all had their allotted place. The bigger ones would
have a shop, protected by a canopy over the front where customers could browse
and living quarters in the back. Outside this period, the land reverted to the
various landlords and the Freemen of the town each had a booth which they could
use or sell to someone else. Mrs Ridout talked mainly about the 18th Century
Fair as the only map of the Fair was made in 1725. This showed that on the
South side of the Newmarket Road was the Great Square which was surrounded by
booths selling cloth and clothes manufactured in the North of England, and
white leather goods. East Anglian wool was sold near the chapel. On both sides
of Newmarket Road were the luxury goods in Cheapside, silks, fine china, coffee
and expensive groceries sold by London traders. The book sellers, leather goods
and basket work were nearby and by the river were the coal merchants, timber
sales, coarse pottery, and ironware. There was a good trade in hops and cheese
The horse fair was very important and occupied part of the Common. The present
Oyster Row reminds us that oysters were not luxury food in those days. The Fair
would be opened by the Mayor heading a great procession of around 120, many in
coaches. The Town imposed a levy of 5 shillings per coach for the duration of
the Fair to pay for the wear and tear on the roads. Many of them were London
taxis as it was found it be more lucrative for the drivers to spend this period
in Cambridge. An enormous booth would house a visiting theatrical company which
put on a number of different plays but this ended in 1804 with a disastrous
fire and after that the Festival Theatre was built.
Mrs Ridout was thanked by Maureen Rogers, who chaired the Meeting. The next meeting will be at 7.30pm on October 8th when Ms Gill Shapland will be talking about "St Andrew the Less, the other side of Cambridge."