Just stumbled across this thread, being a Scarborian an all, just to take up what leveller said about being no fair in Scarborough, there was, and in sofar as I am aware there still is, a fair in Scarborough. As keeper of the Scarborough Punch and Judy tradition I know, as the tradition was passed on to me through the family by the late Sid Owenson, that his grandfather arrived as a child in Scarborough in 1898 in a Bow Top caravan to make some money entertaining at the fair, they then had a marrionette theatre and travelled the fairs earning a living. His great gradfather decided to stay and started the Punch & Judy show on the beach that year. Sid said his grandfather remembered the bow top caravan although he was very young at the time. So the fair was there in 1898 and I would like to bet that it wasn't a victorian invention, who knows, thus it passed through four generations of father/son till it came to me, a brother in law. The tradition, for what it is worth, are the secrets, which alas now can be downloaded from the internet, and a gladston bag with the original Mr Punch from 1898. I have to say the puppet is very crude and would not pass muster in todays sophisticated audience and it is a tad smelly!
Peter