5th September
Barnet Fair
Barnet Horse Fair by John Frederick Herring Senior (1858)
Barnet Fair took place in North London on 4th-6th September in the nineteenth century and was one of the main livestock trading fairs in the capital. It was immensely popular due not only to the roaring trade in horses, but also because it was an excellent day out as it comprised an impressive range of what we would now call pop-up eateries, and a renowned specialist sea food menu. A contemporary source described it, no doubt accurately, as ‘roundabouts and palmists, pickpockets and pretty girls’. Barnet Fair still takes place at Greengate Farm on the first weekend in September, and is now more of a funfair, and it even involves some horse trading, albeit under the watchful eye of the RSPCA.
Another fair traditionally held today was at Crewkerne in Somerset, notable only for furnishing some premature weather lore:
The first rain after Crewkerne Fair,
Is the first rain of winter.
