12 April 2001 I refer to the request by W F G Crozier of Middlesex, in last Friday's [Bolton] Evening News, for more background to the line of verse he remembers about 'Turton Fair'.

The words he remembers are the last four lines of the first verse of the dialect song 'Turton Fair'.

The area known as 'Turton' originally stems from the Manor land holdings associated with Turton Tower, and extend from Timberbottom (in Bradshaw) to the south, almost to Belmont to the north, and from Sharples in the west to Bradshaw and Edgworth to the east. When Turton Urban District Council was formed circa 1895, it took in outline villages of Belmont, Egerton, Harwood, Quarlton, Edgworth and Entwistle, and spread the use of the area title 'Turton'. With the abolition of Turton UDC in 1974, and the former Urban District split between Bolton north, and Blackburn south, the area has begun to lose its association with the name 'Turton'.

The centre of 'Turton' has always been the village of Chapeltown, and is known by both names. Historically, there appears to have been a Fair at Turton from time out of mind, held in September, it seems to have drawn great numbers of people to drink and see the side shows. It had apparently lost much of that vigour by the 1920s and had become an agricultural Fair, held on what is now the Old Boltonians Football Field. The agricultural Fair seems to have died out by the early 1950s. I do not know the age of the poem, but reflected in its verses are the "puncing matches" by men in "clugs" -- and the connection with the Cattle Fair reflected in the rather pointed line "An owd bull come and poked his horn Right in his breeches seat".

Turton Fair - words as above

(Submitted on behalf of the Chapeltown Conservation Group)

Michael Morgan, Overhouses, Turton