I went to the Stratford-upon-Avon Mop on October 12th 2024

This year the Stratford Mop fair was on the 11th and 12th October, and I was there to see it!As I reposted a long post about the Mop a couple of days ago, I thought I should report back. To recap, the Mop began as a Michaelmas (Old Style) Hiring Fair, and has continued in Stratford ever since. But the modern incarnation is no longer a Hiring Fair and no shepherds were to be seen.

The centre of the Town was crowded with a cacophony of shooting galleries, games to win soft toys, stalls selling toffee apples, candy floss, burgers, and all things bad for you. And interspersed with the stalls were all sorts of rides, carousels and all the raucous fun of the fair. They leave Henley Street and Shakespeare’s Birthplace free of it which is probably a good idea. Nothing at all sophisticated, or literary or dramatic, or folkloric. Just a good old-fashioned fun fair in the middle of the town.

You might have noticed I have labelled the photographs differently, one Stratford-upon-Avon, the other Stratford-on-Avon. Most prefer the ‘upon’ but I thought this wrong as the Council building in Church Street uses the simpler ‘on’, which I instinctively prefer. Having looked it up, I see that the answer is both are correct, but Stratford-upon-Avon is used for the Town, and Stratford-on-Avon for the Town and area around the town. Now you know!

Now, I cannot find any reference in Shakespeare to a funfair, nor to a Mop, except for the thing you mop the floor with. But he does mention St Bartholemew’s Fair obliquely, and certainly knew his friend, Ben Jonson’s Play ‘St Bartholemew’s Fair’. It is a great play based in London, at the annual fair in Smithfield. One of the great Wool fairs of England, helped every year on St Bartholemew’s Day August 24th, and lasting sometimes weeks long. The play depicts all the fun and crime that went on at the Fair. Horse-sellers cheating customers by making a dull horse seem frisky, the Beer Tent frothing up beer to give short measure, taking away your goblet before it is emptied, Nightingale as singer of songs, pointing out to an accomplice where his generous donors kept their purses, so they could filch, and also the puppet shows that were performed.

I will have to write this up properly, next St Bart’s Day!