St Giles’ Fair
Since the nineteenth century, St Giles’ Fair has been held on the Monday and Tuesday following the first Sunday after St Giles’ Day (which is always on 1 September). This means that when 1 September is a Saturday, the fair is held at the earliest possible time (3 & 4 September); but when 1 September is a Sunday, the fair is held at the latest possible time (9 & 10 September).
The Fair in 2025 will take place on
Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 September.
Left: The martyrs look down on the roundabout in 2003
Below: View from a third-floor room of the Randolph Hotel of the Sunday service / blessing at the Galloping Horses in 2004
The Fair evolved from the St Giles’ parish wake of the early seventeenth century, which later became known as St Giles’ Feast.
In the 1780s it was a “toy” fair (selling miscellaneous cheap and useful wares), and by 1800 it had become a general fair to entertain children.
From the 1830s there were amusements for adults as well. By the end of the nineteenth century there were several proposals to close it, as it had become too rowdy and licentious.
In 1843 a groom rode a horse through the fair, but it became frightened by the noise and ran away through the crowd. Twenty people were knocked down: Mary Ann Margetts (wife of Philip Margetts, Master of the Bluecoat School in Oxford) died and others were severely hurt. From 1844, no horses were allowed through the fair after 12 noon.
From 1853 the Birmingham Evening Mail advertised numerous cheap excursion trains from Birmingham to the fair that also picked up passengers at Warwick, Leamington, and Banbury. Later trains were also put on from Worcester.
On 13 September 1862 it was reported that the most popular instrument of amusement was the penny scratcher (used by more than half the visitors to the fair to annoy people from behind), and these were soon joined by “squirts” (a kind of water pistol). Both were banned in the 1870s.
Originally permission to set up a stall had to be obtained from St John's College (as Lords of the Manor of Walton) and the ground rents were divided between the college and the city. The college did not allow the setting up of the stalls until after 4am on the Monday, and in 1879 it was reported that it was “willing to do away with [the Fair] if properly memorialised, but are unwilling to take the odium upon themselves”. In 1899 just over 300 vans were parked on the Saturday and Sunday along the Woodstock and Staverton Roads, waiting to move south for the 4am start on Monday.
In 1930 the city corporation (now the city council) took over the control of the fair.
The following are contemporary accounts of the Fair from 1838 to the present day:
- 1838: G.V. Cox
- 1850s: W.E. Sherwood
- 1888: Beatrice Batty
- 1889: Report in Oxford Chronicle
- 1899: Drawing and long report in Jackson's Oxford Journal
- 1911: Rhyme by Henry Taunt
- 1926: George Sanger
- 1937: John Betjeman
- 1965: Jan Morris
- 1953–2003: Joan Williams
Looking north, with the tower of St Giles' Church in the distance behind the trees
St Giles’ Fair in Edwardian times, looking north
Photographs of the fair in the 1980s by Flickr Delusions
Video by Jonathan Hugh of St Giles’ Fair 2007
National Fairground and Circus Archive of
the University of Sheffield:
c.1000 films and photographs of St Giles' Fair
St Giles' Fair, looking north, with the Brooklyn Cake Walk on the right. The tall building with
the
chimneys was demolished to make way for the Mathematical Institute
St Giles’ Fair in Edwardian times, at the north end. St Giles’ Church is on the left, and Keble Road
on the right (behind the present No. 30, lower building with the double gables).
Click on above picture for a larger image
Taylor's Royal Electric Coliseum, with a fish & chip van to the right
Illustration of the Fair, showing ladies on the right wielding scratchers