I think all of the Chartered Fairs were Horse fairs. There were fairs scattered all over the country as you rightly say. There is one little known survival still active in Fulham on the Broadway. It's now a general auction with a few horses, but it attracts the Gypsy Folk. A chartered fair can only be abolished by act of parliament. My wife visited Topcliffe fair (Yorkshire) in the 1940's and remembers being put to bed in the old Bowtop and hearing the dealing men and horses outside all around her. The worlds best lullaby when your a five year old Gypsy girl. Topcliffe fair was abolished in the 1970's by James Callaghan. He proposed the motion backed up by an advertisement in would you believe the London Evening Standard! Of course they all get that in Yorkshire don't they? When there was no objections the fair was abolished. Loads of others went in a similar fashion. Latterly The Boswell family discovered that should a horse or animal be driven over the ground on fair day, the fair can not be abolished, and so we are hanging on to Stowe, Appleby, Lee Gap, Seamer, Priddy and Barnet. How long for I can not say.
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