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Every year, for two days, the High Street of Olde Amersham is taken over by Fairground Rides and Stalls. It is called: The Amersham Charter Fair. The road is cleared of cars, and many residents of the High Street (and even surrounding roads) vacate the area, as the noise gets VERY loud with thumping music, right up to 11pm at night.
The High Street gets packed with people drinking, eating and generally having a good time, and there’s rarely any trouble! The Pubs and Restaurants are packed – many of the Pubs set up Bars on the Street selling Real Ale (often from local Micro Breweries).
We live up a hill, just under a Mile from the High Street, and we can clearly hear it even with all the windows closed 📣. However, it is a great spectacle, loads of fun for young (and young-at-heart) as well as being quite different from the normally sleepy English town of Tourists frequenting the many Pubs, Restaurants and sights 😂.
The origins of the Amersham Fair can be traced back to 18th July 1200, when King John presented Geoffrey Fitz Piers, Earl of Essex, with a charter granting him the right to hold an annual fair and weekly Friday market. Over the years, changes have been made to the charter, but since 1958 and it has been held on September 19th and 20th except for changes when a Sunday is involved.
On my way back from the Doc’s this morning, I took a stroll along the High Street and took the attached photos. I prefer to visit it during the morning – it gets far too busy and loud for me later in the day, let alone the fact I can no longer drink any alcohol (I was an avid Real Ale fan) 🤣🤣🤣
Best wishes ♥️
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Just like Mark T’s Amersham, we have St Giles Annual Fair in the centre of Oxford in September each year.
The Fair evolved from the St Giles’ parish wake, first recorded in 1624, which later became known as St Giles’ Feast. In the 1780s it was a toy fair, but by 1800 it had become a general fair as we know it today with stalls and rides.Richard
St Gikes Fair 2024
St Giles Fair 1906
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I hadn’t heard of the St Giles Annual Fair, Richard, but the name made me wonder if it was associated with the village “Chalfont St Giles”, which is a stones throw from us – but no 😂. I’m in a phase where I believe everything has synchronicity – but this too shall pass 😂😂. However, I suspect your fair is run by the same people as ours; we are so close and they probably tour the whole area!
That’s a great photo of the fair from 1906 👏👏 As Mike says, just the hats – particularly the ladies boaters (are they called Boaters when worn by a lady 🤔 ??) – these date the image. Mind you, I still regularly wear a Flat-Cap (or Cat-Flap, as my late wife called it 🤣🤣); plus of course my ‘signature’ Tilley hat, which is very common wear for Hikers and Bikers around here. 👒🎩
Best wishes 😎
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Got to love a village fair and that’s an astonishing history! Richard’s picture really captures a moment in time and how popular these fairs were back then.
My parents home town of Fairford had a Steam Rally and accompanying fair with old traction engines et al. It had no history to speak of like these two but was still a lot of fun and I’ve fond memories of meeting up with friends in the market place over a few beers
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