# Mediaeval Leicester/Chapter 8

VIII.
THE FAIRS AND MARKETS.
I. FAIRS.
THERE is no very rigid distinction between a "fair" and a "market"; but, when a market is larger, and recurs at more distant intervals than the ordinary daily or weekly mart, and particularly when it is frequented to some extent by persons coming from outside the place of meeting, it is generally called a "fair." Moreover, fairs, as the name denotes (Latin, feriae), are, or were, usually holidays, and the ordinary market is not.
A Fair of unknown origin used to be held at Leicester in June, for fiffteen days, "on the eve, day, and morrow of St. Peter, &c."; but by a grant of Henry III, made in the year 1228-9, the date was altered to the second day of February, or the day of the Purification of Our Lady, and fourteen days after. It looks as if this were a popular institution, founded on ancient custom, for the King's Grant is addressed not to the Earl, but to the community at large, to the "good men of Leicester," "probis hominibus."
The Earl of Leicester had a fair of his own, granted in 1307, which was held on the morrow of the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and fourteen days following. The Charter is printed by Nichols. It was not granted in 1305 by Edward I, as Thompson states in his History, but by Edward the Second, in the first year of his reign. The writer of the article on "Leicester" in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopcedia Britannica goes still further astray in ascribing it to Edward III, and giving its duration as 17 days.
The two fairs afterwards granted by Henry the Eighth to the Town of Leicester may have been given in substitution for this fair of the Earl and the old people's fair. At any rate, the new sixteenth century fairs superseded them.
​These Fair Courts, it may be remarked, were a rough and ready means of administering justice of peculiar interest. "From the end of the eleventh century onwards, the royal grant of license to hold a fair seems to have implied license also to hold a court of summary jurisdiction for offences committed at the fair itself. These obtained the name of Piepowder Courts (pie-poudreux, dusty feet — the suitors appearing informally in their travel-stained condition). In them a jury of merchants found the judgment and declared the law; thus suitors and doomsmen were all of the same class. England is the only country which possesses records of the proceedings at these Courts." Some pleas of the Leicester Piepowder Courts (placita nundinarum villas Leycestriae), of the time of Edward the Third, will be found in the second volume of the Borough Records.
Another fair was granted on April 2nd, 1473, by Edward the Fourth to the Mayor and burgesses dwelling in his town of Leicester. It was to be held there yearly for seven days, viz., three days before the feast of St. Philop and St. James (May 1st), on that feast, and for three days after. Strangers visiting this fair were to be quit of toll, stallage, pickage, and other customs belonging to the King or his heirs. The Mayor and two or three chosen for the purpose might make all arrangements for setting of stalls, etc.
The two last-mentioned fairs are the great pleasure-fairs which were held in Humberstonegate for many centuries, and which became known as the Leicester May Fair and the Leicester October Fair. The May Pleasure Fair used to begin, in the 19th century, on May 12th, and lasted eight days, including the 12th, and the October Pleasure Fair used to begin on October l0th, and lasted 9 days, including the l0th. Cheese Fairs were held on May 13th and Oct. 11th. But after the year 1895, or 1896, the times of the Pleasure fairs were altered, and they were held in late years on the second Thursday in May and October, and the three following days, i.e., on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and the ensuing Monday, the cheese fairs taking place of late years on the second Thursdays in May and October. The stalls and shows occupied the strip of waste ​ground on the south side of Humberstonegate called "No man's Land," which was let out to the holders by the owners of the adjoining houses for the periods of the fairs. The booths used to overflow, fifty years ago, round East Gates into the roadway of Cheapside and the Market Place. They contained a miscellaneous assortment of merchandize and "fairings"; and there were always in Humberstonegate a Menagerie and a Theatre, and various other exhibitions and amusements. The last Pleasure Fair in Humberstonegate was held in October, 1902. When these fairs were discontinued, a considerable sum was granted to the owners of property in Humberstonegate as compensation for their fair-rents. The Cattle Fairs held in May and October were ordered in 1774 to be in the present High Cross Street.
Two new Fairs were granted to the town by Henry VIII in addition to those formerly given by Edward III and Edward the Fourth. By Letters Patent, dated the 20th day of March, 1540, the King granted to the Mayor and burgesses of Leicester in perpetuity a fair at the same town and its suburb every year to last five days, viz., two days before the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24th), on the day of the said Feast, and two days next following the said feast. At the same time he also gave them another fair at Leicester and its suburb every year to last five days, two days before the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 8th), on the day of the feast, and two days next following the said feast. Every native and foreigner coming to Leicester for the fair was to be quit of toll, stallage, pickage, &c., and the government of the fairs was confirmed to the Mayor and burgesses, and to be arranged by the Mayor and two or three of the best men of the town ("probioribus et melioribus hominibus"), elected and sworn.
Edward the Sixth, in the first year of his reign, confirmed the patents given by his ancestors, Edward III and Edward IV, for the Michaelmas Fair and the May Fair; and Queen Mary confirmed both the Letters Patent of Henry VIII and the charter of Edward VI, assuring the two former fairs. Queen Elizabeth, in the first year of her reign, confirmed all four fairs, Midsummer, Christmas, May and Michaelmas.
​The expense involved in obtaining the two sixteenth century fairs was defrayed by subscription. "The King having; granted to the town two fairs (Midsummer Fair, and the Conception of Our Lady before Christmas), over and besides two fairs anciently granted by the King's progenitors; Towards the charges of the charter under the great seal the Masters, Wardens and Stewards of the Guilds of Corpus Christi and St. Margaret's in the name of the brotherhood, gave £20; viz., each of the Guilds; £10. And it was agreed that this should be registered in the Town Book, to remain for ever. Received of the Master and Stewards of Corpus Christi Guild towards the charges of labouring the King's Charter for two new fairs for the town of Leicester, £10; of the Guild of St. Margaret's, for the same, £10; of the Occupation of Bakers, 6s. 8d.; of the Butchers, 26s. 8d.; of the Smiths, 13s. 4d.; in all, £22 6s. 8d. The Chamberlains paid to Mr. Barton, for riding to London and Waldyng, and for sealing the charter, £10 2s. 11d.; to Robert Cotton, for like charges, £9 14s. 10d.; to Mr. Gyllot, for the town's business, 6s. 8d.; to Mr. Wood, for the like, 6s. 8d.; to Mr. Bolte, for riding to London, 40s.; in all £22 11s. 1d. So that the town was at no more charge than 4s. 5d."
The four fairs used to be formally proclaimed at the High Cross. The Mayor, Corporation and Town Officials, followed by the Waits playing music, and by some of the poor men of the Trinity Hospital, "having rusty helmets on their heads, and breastplates fastened on their black taberdes," walked in procession through the main streets, and at the Cross the Town Clerk read the charter creating the Fair. This armed perambulation of fairs is a custom of very high antiquity. The Leicester ceremony is referred to by Nichols, and continued into the 19th century.
William Burton, writing in 1622, enumerates five fairs held at Leicester; the two great fairs of May and Michaelmas, the two 16th century fairs of Midsummer and Christmas, and one other fair held upon Palm Sunday even. This Palm-Fair is also mentioned by Cox and Throsby ; and, according to the latter writer, there was then a considerable show of cattle. ​Throsby mentions a sixth fair as well, viz., Low Fair, which was also a market for cattle. In the year 1563 it was ordered that two Leather Fairs should be held "the morrow after Michaelmas Day and the morrow after May Day, and that proclamation thereof be made and the fair to be kept betwixt Saint John's Cross and the North Gate." St. John's Cross has been indentified with the Senvey Cross, but Kelly was evidently right in distinguishing them. It may be supposed that St. John's Cross stood near St. John's Hospital, the Leather Fair being held in that part of the High Street which lay between the Hospital and the North Gate.
In the course of the 18th Century, additional fairs for cattle and sheep were established in Leicester, on January 4th, June 1st, August 1st, September 13th, and November 2nd. The cattle stood in Millstone Lane, and the sheep in the Sheepmarket.
II. MARKETS.
THE WEDNESDAY MARKET.
From a very early time the country people who lived near Leicester were accustomed to bring their produce for sale in the High Street of the Borough; and, as the centre of the ancient walled town was the junction of its four main streets which led to the four gates, the sellers naturally gravitated to that spot. A cross was standing there in the 13th century. It was repaired in 1278, and in 1306. In 1314 it was rebuilt, and the "Keeper of the High Cross" had stones brought from Waverton, to replace the old stones, which were taken away. The new cross was oiled and painted, and was surmounted by a weather cock. Figures of knights were brought from the old Mayor's Hall, and placed on the Cross with the aid of a windlass. At the beginning of the 14th century a weekly market was in vogue every Wednesday about this High Cross. In the reign of Henry VIII, bread was also sold there on Fridays, and the country people would bring in their eggs and butter on that day as well as on Wednesday.
A new and much more spacious erection was put up in the time of Queen Elizabeth, to serve both as a Cross and as a shelter for the market women. A representation of this 16th century cross, which cost nearly £100, is given by Throsby. It ​did not stand at the junction of the cross roads, but at a little distance to the North, and Throsby says that it extended "from the opening where the pillar now stands partly over the midway, which just left room for carriages to pass, from which extended the sign of the Horse and Trumpet, a large Inn." Cox described it as "an exquisite piece of workmanship." It was removed in 1773, and sold, in portions, for a few pounds. The largest part of it in one place supported, in Throsby's time, the dining-room at the Three Crowns Inn. One of its limbs was left to serve in the place of the old Market Cross until the year 1836, when it was taken away, and placed in front of the Crescent in King Street, where it still remains. The Wednesday Market was removed from its old quarters by the Leicester Corporation Act of 1884, when a part of the Market Place was set aside for the holding of a market "as a market for the sale of fruit, vegetables, plants, eggs, butter and poultry only between the hours of six in the morning and four in the afternoon on every Wednesday throughout the year."
THE SATURDAY MARKET.
A very ancient market was held at Leicester on Saturdays in the present Market Place, which locality, as early as 1298, was called "The Saturday Market." In a Conveyance of that year a house at Leicester is stated to be bounded on one side by "the lane which leads to the Saturday Market." In the year 1300 a man was charged with an offence committed "in foro Sabbati." In 1316 the Place is spoken of as the weekly market, "forum ebdomadale." The Market Place was more extensive in former centuries than it is now, and occupied all the South-eastern corner of the Town. It was bounded on the Northeast and Southeast by the Town Walls, and on the inside of the Northeast wall ran a wide causeway, known as the Cornwall, where farmers used to show samples of their grain, and where horse-dealers displayed the paces of their animals. In the 16th century some part of the Cornwall was licensed for sheep-pens.
The opening and closing of the market seems to have been announced in old times by the ringing of a bell.
​The old Special Markets mentioned in the Records of the Borough are the Grain Market, the Bean Market, the Sheep Market, the Swine Market and the Cattle Market, and, in later times, a Horse Fair and a Wool Market. The Hay Market was always held outside the walls, on account of the impossibility of waggons loaded with hay passing under the Gateways. In the Saturday Market the Butchers had their Shambles, which stood, in Elizabethan days, on the North-west side of the Market Place and North of the Gainsborough. A Fish Market was existing in the 14th century. There was also a "Housewife's Market," sometimes called the "Women's Market," and a Drapers' Market. In the Saturday Market the goods were generally, and for many years habitually, exposed to the weather on open stalls, but in the 15th century, shortly before 1440, a Market House was built, in which Butchers' Shambles were set up and stalls for clothiers and other tradesmen. This Market House was generally known as "Le Draperie," or "The Shambles and Draperie." All traders using it paid rents to the Duchy of Lancaster. The butchers, for instance, paid 1 1/2d. for each stall.
At the time when Queen Elizabeth executed her first Leicester Charter of 1589, the Draperie was let on a thirty-one years Lease to Edward Catlyn, and the Queen conveyed the property to the Corporation of Leicester subject to the remainder of this Lease. But the drapers did not use the Market House greatly in those days, preferring to set up stalls in the open market. Consequently in the year 1601, the tenant, the widow of Edward Catlyn, had some difficulty in paying the rent. At any rate the Earl of Huntingdon wrote to the Mayor on her behalf, complaining that drapers were permitted to act in this way, so that "her Majesty's house," erected for their stalls, being "unfurnished" would soon be "ruinated." He therefore desired the Mayor to see to it that "such as offer wrong by absenting themselves from the draperie may by you be compelled to repair to the place for that use built."
The Gainsborough, which was erected some time before 1533, had no accommodation for stalls, except some shops, under a projecting balcony, which were let off to shoemakers.
​There was a common pinfold in the Place, which stood on the site of the present Fishmarket. All cattle found straying were driven into it, and kept there until compensation had been paid for any damage.
The little octagonal "Conduit," which was nearly opposite to the Victoria Parade, dated from the beginning of the 17th century, although a scheme for bringing water to the town had been in existence long before. It was mended in 1689, at which time "Widow Brooks" was receiving 15s. a year "for opening and shutting the conduit doors daily."
The Grain Market is mentioned in 1314, when six posts were purchased by the Mayor, for the purpose of staking out its boundaries. It adjoined the Bean Market, for the two sites were in that year cleaned together, at an expense of 9d. The Sheep Market lay north of the Saturday Market, where Silver Street now runs, until the year 1506. It was then resolved by the Corporation that the Sheepmarket should be kept in the Saturday Market from May to Michaelmas, and that the profits should be for the use of the town. So successful was this experiment that two years later, it was enacted that the Sheepmarket should be "thenceforth holden still in the Market Place, and the profits be to behoof of the town." In future the profits of the Sheepmarket were let out for terms of years to private persons, the first rental fixed in 1508 being, £3. In 1710 the rent had risen to £16, "and the parish levies." The sheep continued to be sold in the Market Place until the market for them was moved, sometime in the 19th century, to the site of the present Town Hall: thence it migrated to the new Cattle Market outside the town.
Beyond the earliest Sheep Market lay the Swinesmarket, which was held at first in what is now called High Street and the East Gate. But as that thoroughfare grew in importance, the presence of swine became undesirable, and they were removed, in 1524, to Parchment Lane, the modern Bond Street. Afterwards the mart migrated to Loseby Lane, which, in Nichols' time, was named The Pigmarket. In days yet later it was held in Free School Lane and West Bond Street, until the obnoxious ​animals were removed altogether out of the town to the new Cattle Market.
A Cattle Market is mentioned in the Borough Records as early as 1341. It was held, apparently, in the Saturday Market; until it was resolved, at a Common Hall which met in the year 1597, "that the beast market shall from henceforth be kept in the lane called Cow Lane, Cank Street, and Loseby Lane, and not to be any more hereafter kept in the Saturday Market." no regular beast market, however, seems to have been established until the year 1763, when the Corporation made an Order "that a Market shall be opened on every Wednesday hereafter, in this Borough, for the sale of Fat and Lean Cattle." This was held, at first, in the Market Place, or near the East Gate, but in 1774 it was removed to Horsefair Street, "from the wall adjoining the Three Crowns Inn and to extend straight along the Millstone Lane." A few years later, the market was further extended "down the South Gate to the Horse Pool and also along the Welford Road to St. Mary's Workhouse or across Hangman Lane if necessary." The new Cattle Market in the Welford Road was opened in 1872.
The "Horse Fair" is mentioned in the Borough Records for 1508, as the name of the piece of ground, outside the southern wall of the town, where horses were bought and sold. These dealings seem to have taken place chiefly at the Midsummer Fair. Thus the Chamberlains' Accounts for the year 1559-60 acknowledge toll received "of the horse fair at Midsummer, 1s. 8d." In the last century a Horse-fair was held four times a year in Humberstonegate. Two of these fairs lasted a whole day each; the others came to an end at mid-day.
A Wool Market was established by the Second Charter of Queen Elizabeth, granted in 1599, in the following words.
"For the relief of the poor and of sick men and women dwelling in Leicester We grant that the Mayor bailiffs and burgesses may have a wool market for the purchase and sale of wool, woollen thread, and yarn, provided such market damage no neighbouring market, and any subject may buy wool, woollen thread, and yarn brought into Leicester on the days appointed, ​when fairs and markets are held, and may sell the same again or use it in any way, the statute of Edward VI or any other statute notwithstanding. Further We will that all tolls, stallages pickages, fines, amercements, profits, &c., arising out of the said market shall be used for the profit of the poor and sick men and women within the borough." The Wool Market was held every Wednesday and Saturday.
A Wool Hall was made out of the disused Hospital of St. John, and it was ordered by the Corporation "that every stone or tod of wool, either fleece wool or pelt wool, which shall be at any time hereafter brought to the Borough to be sold, shall be weighed at the Wool Hall in the same Borough upon pain of 3s. 4d. for every stone and of 6s. 8d. for every 10d." This order was made in the October of 1599, but was not universally obeyed for in the following August it was resolved "that the Act and Order lately made for the selling and weighing of wool at the Wool-Hall shall be put in execution, and such townsmen as have since the making of the said law sold and weighed their wool at home at their houses, or in any other place within the Borough of Leicester out of the Wool Hall, shall pay the fines forfeited." The Wool Hall did not, however, fulfil the hopes of its promoters, and the grant of the market was afterwards called in question.
On the western side of the Saturday Market used to stand a large elm-tree, which, in the 16th century, had the ground beneath its spreading branches paved, and furnished with seats. A new elm was planted in the year 1689. This was, presumably, the "Pigeon Tree," under which, according to Gardiner, " country women sat to sell pigeons." A pair of stocks stood in the shade of the marketplace elm, and another pair is said to have been under the Pillory near to the Cornwall.
A very good idea of the general appearance of the Leicester Saturday Market Place, as it was before the modern industrial expansion of the town, may be gathered from the three old views reproduced in the first volume of Messrs. J. and T. Spencer's Leicestershire Notes and Queries.