Slightly obscure - where was I this week?

[whole diary]

[SandTEngineer]

I'll have another stab at it.  Royal Wootton Bassett.

[bobm]

Much closer - but still need to go further east....

[Chris from Nailsea]

psst ... Thames Valley. 




I now know the correct answer, so I've stopped posting silly suggestions, such as Portishead (which really was 'tongue in cheek). 

[grahame]

With the clue .. tentative guess at Abingdon

[bobm]

Spot on.

Apparently there is a law which requires there to be a fair each year on the Monday and Tuesday immediately before the 11th October.  It now stretches for over a mile down the Main Street which makes it the longest street fair in Europe.

I went to school there in the 70s and I’ll swear some of the stalls still have the same pitches now.

As to the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) poster. Despite the fact the branch line closed to passengers in the 1960s I can remember seeing BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) posters in those cases in the 70s.

Final fact. When I started there I was in Berkshire, when I finished I was in Oxfordshire.

[Chris from Nailsea]

It now stretches for over a mile down the Main Street which makes it the longest street fair in Europe.

Hmm.  A claim disputed by Kirkcaldy, in Fife, apparently:

The Links Market in Kirkcaldy, Fife is Europe's longest street fair[1] and the oldest in Scotland. Established in 1304, the annual six-day event attracts between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors[2] to the town. 2004 was the 700th anniversary of the event, with 225 attractions and more than an estimated half a million visitors.[3] The Links Market is held along the town's seafront.

 

[didcotdean]

It is held on Old Michaelmas Day, as those in Abingdon still cling to the Julian calendar 

Some of the pitches certainly have been in the same hands for generations.

The smaller Runaway Fair follows a week later - if you didn't like the person who hired you at the Michaelmas you could run away and try and get hired by someone better. These days the Runaway is targeted towards young children

[grahame]

The Chard  Carnival came up next ... but discussions took a step in a less lighter direction as a lady was critically injured there; those discussions now in a separate thread at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18856.0

[stuving]

Apparently there is a law which requires there to be a fair each year on the Monday and Tuesday immediately before the 11th October.  It now stretches for over a mile down the Main Street which makes it the longest street fair in Europe.

It is held on Old Michaelmas Day, as those in Abingdon still cling to the Julian calendar 

I've seen Old Michaelmas given as 10th October in the press, which it was from 1752-1800. During the 19th century it was the 11th, as bobm says. Since 1900 it's been the 12th - but if you're minded to use an out-of-date calendar, I guess using an out-of-date version of it would seem natural enough.

[bobm]

Details of how the date is arrived at is detailed on the Town Council website.

The Town Council hosts the annual Michaelmas Fair, which is known as the longest street fair in Europe. By law, the fair must take place annually on the Monday and Tuesday falling first before the 11 October in the centre of Abingdon-on-Thames: Ock Street, High Street and the Market Place. 

The origin of the fairs were for the hiring of labour in the period after the Black Death in 1348. The Runaway Fair was named because it was a chance for anyone who had made a mistake and started work with a master who was perhaps cruel or untrustworthy to literally run away and find another farm to work on at the fair one week later.

[didcotdean]

The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 required fairs after the 2nd September to remain on the same day as if the calendar change hadn't been made

from and after the said second of September all such markets, fairs and marts as aforesaid, and all courts incident or belonging thereto, shall be holden and kept upon or according to the same natural days upon or according to which the same should have been so kept or holden in case this Act had not been made, that is to say, eleven days later than the same would have happened, according to the nominal days of the said new supputation of time by which the commencement of each month and the nominal days thereof are anticipated or brought forward by the space of eleven days any thing in this Act contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.

How's that for obscurity

It is for a similar reason as to why the tax year is what it is; prior to the change it was aligned with the start of the year on Lady's Day, 25 March. Old Lady Day was 5 April until 1800, when they remembered to add in the extra day to make it 6 April. No one remembered or could be bothered in 1900 to change it again.

[John R]

Apparently there is a law which requires there to be a fair each year on the Monday and Tuesday immediately before the 11th October.  It now stretches for over a mile down the Main Street which makes it the longest street fair in Europe.

It is held on Old Michaelmas Day, as those in Abingdon still cling to the Julian calendar 

I've seen Old Michaelmas given as 10th October in the press, which it was from 1752-1800. During the 19th century it was the 11th, as bobm says. Since 1900 it's been the 12th - but if you're minded to use an out-of-date calendar, I guess using an out-of-date version of it would seem natural enough.

So I guess it didn't move forward to the 13th in 2000 because that was a leap year (whereas 1900, 1800 etc were not)?

[stuving]

So I guess it didn't move forward to the 13th in 2000 because that was a leap year (whereas 1900, 1800 etc were not)?

Exactly: the two calendars were 10 days adrift in 1582 when the Gregorian one was first used, and that didn't change in 1600 (leap year in both), then slipped one more year each in 1700 (to 11), 1800 (to 12), and 1900 (to 13) but not 2000. The point being that making the correction and then sticking with the new date isn't the same as continuing to reckon by the old calendar.

I guess it was less than a lifetime to 1800, so it's not surprising there were still people keeping count of leap years the old way then (plus a lot unaware of the new centuries rule anyway). One special case is Christmas old-style, which became the 6th of January after 1800. By coincidence this is the Twelfth Day of Christmas (even if it's really the 13th inclusively). I suspect that has led to some confusion, making that date even less likely to move any more. Mind you, those Orthodox churches using the old calendar do now have Christmas on our 7th.

[Chris from Nailsea]

In my studies (such as they were) for Russian history at A level, I was always intrigued to note that their 'February Revolution' was in March, and their 'October Revolution' was in November, 1917.  See https://www.bl.uk/russian-revolution/articles/timeline-of-the-russian-revolution 

That could very well have confused even Sean Connery, in 'The Hunt for Red October', if such things hadn't been sorted out subsequently. 

[Bmblbzzz]

So I guess it didn't move forward to the 13th in 2000 because that was a leap year (whereas 1900, 1800 etc were not)?

Exactly: the two calendars were 10 days adrift in 1582 when the Gregorian one was first used, and that didn't change in 1600 (leap year in both), then slipped one more year each in 1700 (to 11), 1800 (to 12), and 1900 (to 13) but not 2000. The point being that making the correction and then sticking with the new date isn't the same as continuing to reckon by the old calendar.

I guess it was less than a lifetime to 1800, so it's not surprising there were still people keeping count of leap years the old way then (plus a lot unaware of the new centuries rule anyway). One special case is Christmas old-style, which became the 6th of January after 1800. By coincidence this is the Twelfth Day of Christmas (even if it's really the 13th inclusively). I suspect that has led to some confusion, making that date even less likely to move any more. Mind you, those Orthodox churches using the old calendar do now have Christmas on our 7th.

I don't think it's quite that simple. Most Orthodox calendars have Christmas Day on the 7th, but for some it's on the 6th. There don't appear to be any Orthodox churches in Abingdon though, the nearest will be in Oxford.