A Civic Society for Romsey, Hampshire UK and surrounding villages

8. Markets and Fairs

Other cases coming before the Court related to the mayor’s authority as outlined by the charter. The charter made the mayor clerk of the weekly market and responsible for
the assize and the testing of bread, wine and ale, and all, and every sort of, fees of fuel and wood within the town aforesaid, … And also the punishment and correction of all and singular the wrong-doers there in the abuse of weights, measures, fuel, wood and all other things belonging to or concerning the office of Clerk of the Market.

In order to enforce weights and measures, it was necessary to have reference measures. Latham described a wooden bushel measure that was replaced in 1792 by a brass measure, with iron handles. This metal bushel, which had cost about £14, was stolen in 1831, but fortunately turned up in a nearby field. It is currently displayed just outside the Council Chamber

In 1787, the market traders of Salisbury were in dispute with the Salisbury Corporation. Some of them therefore decamped to Romsey and continued trading here. After a year or two, peace was made and Salisbury market was restored. However the episode shows that Romsey market was seen as a significant place in which to do business

In 1825, Romsey market day was changed from Saturday to Thursday ‘for the better convenience and accommodation is respect of other neighbouring places’. The event was celebrated with bell ringing on the first new market day, and then ‘a sumptuous dinner was had at the town hall conducted by Mr Phillips of the White Horse Inn’ and songs were sung, one of which had been composed especially for the event.

As well as a weekly market, the charter granted a fair during the Monday and Tuesday next after the feast of Easter, holding [it] there every year for ever.
Fairs were much bigger than the markets and drew in traders and customers from further afield. Stall-holders could be charged higher fees than for the weekly market. Fairs were therefore of great value.

The medieval nuns had been granted the right to hold two annual fairs in Romsey, on August 26 and November 8. The charter made no reference to these, but it did allow for a piepowder court. These courts lasted for the duration of a fair and enabled the Corporation to dispense instant justice regarding petty crime before any wrongdoers could disperse.

Little is known of the early fairs, but Latham in the early 1800s recorded that the right to administer the fair was sometimes franchised out to an individual. Thus in 1733 the right to hold the fairs was granted for seven years to Nicholas Belbin of Romsey infra haberdasher of hats for an annual fee of £5.

Latham also commented that
the sale of cheese is greatly predominant as well as at the Easter Fair. Horses and other cattle bear a part, with the usual concomitants of puppet shows, toys, gingerbread etc for the solace of children

In Latham’s day in the early 1800s the fairs were probably held in the Market Place, at times extending north along Church Street to the Horsefair.

By the time William Roles was writing his diary in the 1880s the Council owned land in Alma Road. This served as both a recreation ground and a ‘fair field’.

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