All Old Strange Things

All Old Strange Things

Fair play

An ancient fair in the Cambridgeshire landscape

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Francis Young
May 12, 2025
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Reach Fair, 5 May 2025

Not many fairs have survived in England from the Middle Ages. The Fairs Act 1871 empowered the Home Secretary to shut down any fair if he received representations from magistrates, regardless of whether the fair held a royal charter – under normal circumstances, royal charters can be rescinded only by the Privy Council, which requi…

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