British Popular Customs, Present and Past / Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.

by T. F. Thiselton-Dyer

Staffordshire.

At the fairs held in Wednesbury on the 25th of April and 23rd of July (old style) a custom prevailed for many years called “Walking the Fair.” The ceremonies connected with it were conducted in the following manner: On the morning of the fair the beadle appeared in the market-place dressed for the occasion, and wearing as badges of his office a bell, a long pike, &c. To him assembled a number of the principal inhabitants of the parish, often with a band of music. They then marched in procession, headed by the beadle, through different parts of the town; called at the Elephant and Castle, in the High Bullen, drank two tankards of ale, and then returned into the market-place where they quenched their thirst again with the same kind of beverage. After this they dined together at one of the public-houses. The expenses incurred in this “Walking the Fair” were defrayed by the parish funds.—Hist. of Wednesbury, 1854, p. 153.