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This medieval English fair has been cancelled for the first time in 800 years

Organisers of the Petworth St Edmund’s Day Celebration blame rising costs and a lack of volunteers for axing this year’s event

Annie McNamee
Written by
Annie McNamee
Contributor, Time Out London and UK
St Edmund’s Day fair in Petworth, West Sussex
Photograph: Alamy
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Not many things are still surviving from the medieval period. But while it may seem like only a few trees, some rocks, and Beowulf are all you get in terms of ‘stuff which is verifiably 800 years old’, this is a pretty old country – with a surprising number of very old traditions.

Petworth in West Sussex has celebrated St Edmund’s Day on November 20 with a fair every year since 1189, but the festivities will not go ahead this year for the first time ever in eight centuries. Back when the celebration began it was a horse and sheep fair – that is a place to show off and buy the animals, sadly not a carnival with rides for our equine friends – but in the modern day it has become a regular funfair with rides and food stalls.

According to organisers, there simply isn’t enough money, nor are there enough volunteers, to keep the celebration up and running for 2024. Mike Mulcahy, chair of the local village events society, said: ‘It has become economically unviable. The fairground people validly say that with all the costs of closing the streets, health and safety and setting up the rides, they need money upfront.

‘There is no way we can pay £5,000 up front.’

He continued saying: ‘Last year, there were three of us organising it. It needs commitment and volunteers.’

There will be a forum on November 16 at Leconfield Hall for local residents to give their thoughts on the future of the tradition, and potentially begin organising so that it can return in 2025. They’ll be looking for volunteers, so if you’re in the area and don’t want to lose this piece of local heritage, head on over.

They’re open to suggestions for ways the fair could survive in a slightly different form, so maybe you could have a hand in reinvigorating a near-millennia old tradition. What a legacy to leave.

You can find out more about that forum event here.

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