Tower and Town, June 2018 (view the full edition)The King John MythThe Marlborough Mop Fairs provide great fun and excitement, and long may they continue, but maybe, just maybe, they could be moved somewhere less environmentally sensitive than our over polluted High Street. Somewhere more convenient for the Showmen allowing their stalls and rides to be set up just once to trade a whole week if desired without the necessity of dismantling on the Saturday nights. Somewhere more acceptable to local traders who have repeatedly asked for them to be sited elsewhere. Somewhere that would not cause traffic and parking problems. Somewhere that would allow Marlborough to have an attractive High Street instead of its current status as a barren car park. The fairs demand that there be no fixtures on the High Street but with no fairs we could have trees, street furniture and shelters, attractive lamp posts. even a fountain or sculptures. If one asks why the Mop Fairs are not moved to the Common (the obvious place where other fairs and circuses are held) the usual answer is that they are there due to a charter of King John and it would take an act of Parliament to change it. Both these statements are quite wrong and the myth is possibly the fault of William Golding, plus a popular misconception about the Marlborough Charter. In his 1967 novel 'The Pyramid' Golding commented that traders in 'Stilbourne', a thinly disguised Marlborough, wanted the Mop Fairs moved from the High Street and he criticised the local council by quipping that it would take an act of Parliament to persuade them do anything. As a result of this humour it has been assumed ever since that it was an act of Parliament, or a king's statute, that established the fairs. There is no charter or statute concerning Mop Fairs. In the Marlborough Charter of 1204 King John did grant a fair but it was an eight day trade fair and was not on the High Street which was far too narrow in those and days and for some 450 years afterwards. As the fair was linked to St Peter's Church it is believed it was held on St Peter's Field, now River Park. Mop Fairs, ie, hiring and firing fairs, came into existence a hundred and fifty years after King John's death. Although initially called 'Statute Fairs' they were not set up by any benevolent statute, they resulted from a punitive law of Edward III after the Black Death. It restricted workers pay and freedoms to pre plague conditions and was for the benefit of employers, keeping the workers poor and dependent.; fairs were not mentioned in the statute at all. There is no evidence that Marlborough had Mop Fairs before the 1700s and the name Mop Fair in England dates from the late 17th century. So what's more important? Preserving a myth and the increasing diesel pollution or solving several problems and making Marlborough a beautiful place? Peter Noble |