Hiring and mop fairs

File:Take Notice that the Cardigan Hiring Fair 1861.jpg

Farm workers, labourers, servants and some craftsmen would work for their employer from October to October. At the end of the employment they would attend the mop fair dressed in their Sunday best clothes and carrying an item signifying their trade. A servant with no particular skills would carry a mop head.{{Cite book|last=Burwick|first=Frederick|title=British Drama of the Industrial Revolution|year=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1-1071-1165-3}} The 'tassle' worn on their lapel was the emblem of the employee's trade - for instance shepherds would wear a piece of wool in their buttonholes, whereas farmers might hold a piece of straw,{{cite news|title=What Are Mop Fairs|url=https://www.wearetricycle.co.uk/pages/what-are-mop-fairs|access-date=March 30, 2022}} and this tassle became known as a 'mop', hence the term "mop fair. Hiring fairs were also known as statute fairs (or statutes) because an Act of Parliament of 1677 endorsed the yearly bonds made between masters and servants at them.{{Cite book|last=Hey|first=David|authorlink=David Hey|title=The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History|year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn= 0-1921-1688-6|page=218}}

Employers would move amongst them discussing experience and terms, and once agreement was reached the employer would give the employee a small token of money, known as the “fasten-penny,” usually a shilling, which “fastened” the contract for a year. The employee would then remove the item signifying their trade and wear bright ribbons to indicate they had been hired.

The stalls set up, at the fair, selling food and drink and offering games to play, would tempt the employee to spend their token money. The whole event became a major festival and eventually was condemned for the drunkenness and immorality they encouraged.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Hiring|volume=13|page=523}}{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Simpson |first1= Jacqueline| last2= Roud|first2=Stephen |encyclopedia=A Dictionary of English Folklore |title= Hiring Fairs|year= 2000|publisher= Oxford University Press|location=Oxford |isbn=0-1921-0019-X |pages=177–178}}

Michaelmas Day is celebrated on 29 September but mop fairs were tied to the seasons and the harvest, not the calendar. When the Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1752 and eleven days dropped from that year, events associated with the end of the harvest moved eleven days later to 10 October. This date is known as "Old Michaelmas Day" and since 1752 was the date of the mop fairs. Although many towns continue to hold mop fairs to this day, traditional hiring fairs had ceased by the middle of the 20th century.

Image:Tewkesbury Mop Fair.jpg feature]]

File:Sippers and Topers c1900 Stone.jpg]]

The following towns have a history of holding mops and still hold one each year on or around Michaelmas Day. A theme common to these towns is that they were, several hundred years ago, medium-sized thriving market towns surrounded by a large number of smaller villages, hence their obvious choice as the location for the mop.

• Alcester
• Banbury
• Burton upon Trent (the Statutes Fair)
• Chipping Norton[http://www.oxtowns.co.uk/chipping_norton/home.html Chipping Norton] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303235943/http://www.oxtowns.co.uk/chipping_norton/home.html |date=2016-03-03 }} at OXTowns.co.uk
• Chipping Sodbury
• Cirencester
• Daventry
• Evesham
• Kings Norton
• Ledbury
• Marlborough
• Moreton in Marsh
• Sherborne, Pack Monday Fair
• Southam
• Stratford upon Avon
• Tewkesbury
• Warwick

Tewkesbury and other mop fairs typically take over the entire town centre for two days, attracting thousands of visitors. Many of the rides at the mop are fast, brightly lit and very noisy including traditional rides such as carousels and helter-skelters.

At Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby Statutes is held every September. Instituted by Royal Statute, it was originally a hiring fair.

• Dudsday – a hiring fair at Kilmarnock in Scotland
• Job fair

File:Charles-François Marchal, La foire aux servantes.jpg, Alsace)]]

{{Reflist}}

• Kussmaul, Ann (1981) Servants in Husbandry in Early Modern England (includes a list of hiring fairs which existed in that period)
• Caunce, Stephen (1991) Amongst Farm Horses: the horselads of East Yorkshire

• [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/statlab.asp Text of the Statute of Labourers 1351]

Category:Autumn traditions

Category:Fairs in England

Category:Festivals established in the 14th century

Category:Recruitment

Category:1351 establishments in England