horses

Culture > Fairs

Lee Gap Fair -
A History

Written by Tom Leadley in June 1998
Footnotes by Peter Aldred and Clive McManus

Foreward

Fairgoers may remember me last year, collecting signatures to protest about plans to build houses at Lee Fair. Since then, much has happened, and although no decision has been made about the building, the owners of the present fair-fields have very recently decided not to allow any more fairs on their land after this year.

Lee Fair has long been supported by Gypsies, Travellers, farmers, miners and West Ardsley people. All of these are under threat. Many Gypsies have come off the road and live in houses, which would have been unthinkable at one time. Agricultural workers are a fraction of the former number, and in Wakefield alone, 17,000 miners have recently lost their jobs. As for West Ardsley people, a glance beyond the fairground shows the tide of red brick and red roofs which threatens to sweep them aside.

Unless another field can be found in West Ardsley, the life of England's oldest charter fair will come to an end. This would be a great pity because, after some very thin attendances 20 or 25 years ago, Lee Fair has recovered because of the increased interest in horse-riding, and both fairs were very well attended last year. Addresses on the petition showed visitors from all parts of the North of England and North Midlands, with some from much further south, Wales, and Ireland.

It may not be possible to find a new field in time to tell everyone at this year's fair, but if you write or telephone between now and next August, I will let you know of any new arrangements.

Tom Leadley

West Ardsley Residents' Action Group

0113 253 5677

This Edition revised and extended June 1998

Introduction

Over the past year, we have tried to unravel the history of the fair, and it has become clear that most of the little that has been written about it is unreliable, often consisting of later authors copying errors found in earlier works. Where possible, every fact has been checked carefully, and where there is doubt, this is made plain by the wording. None the less, this is very much a first attempt at a proper, if brief, history of Lee Fair. It may be possible to build on it in future. Any comments, corrections or further information would be gratefully received.

Historic Origins

Lee Fair is held in the Parish of Woodkirk, otherwise known as the Township of West Ardsley. Woodkirk, the parish church, is dedicated to St. Mary and was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086, when West Ardsley was part of the Manor of Wakefield. Between 1121 and 1127, the church was given by the Lord of the Manor, the second Earl of Warren, to Nostell Priory, about 9 miles away on the far side of Wakefield. It became a small monastery with a few resident canons. Before his death in 1135, King Henry I had given the Priory a Royal Charter for fairs at Woodkirk, though some may have been held earlier.

West Ardsley was also in the Wapentake of Morley, originally a Danish local government division established in Viking times, which stretched from Rothwell westwards to the Lancashire border, and from Haworth and Idle in the north to Rishworth and Mirfield in the south. Wapentake meetings were held out of doors in open country, to stop them being unduly influenced by the owners of any particular building, or people of any one town. It is generally believed that the Wapentake of Morley met at Tingley, which means "parliament hill", a few yards south of the present Tingley Roundabout, M62 junction 28, and only half a mile from today's fair fields.

Quite likely, people who had come from such a wide area would take part in trading and dealing, as well as the formal Wapentake meetings, so King Henry's charter may have given Royal permission for trading which was already taking place, or replaced an earlier charter of which there is now no record.

King Henry left his crown to his daughter Matilda, but it was seized by his nephew, Stephen, whose coronation was held on 22nd December 1135. Next Easter, early in April 1136, Stephen held a meeting of leading nobles and churchmen at Oxford, to draw up a Charter of Liberties which set out the terms of his reign and sought to strengthen his hold on the kingdom.

King Stephen's Royal Charter

Between his coronation and the dismissal of his first chancellor, Roger le Poer, on the 24th June 1139, King Stephen issued a replacement or confirmation of Henry's charter for Woodkirk Fair, as Lee Fair was then known. Stephen's fair charter was witnessed by two of the witnesses of his Charter of Liberties, and was also issued at Oxford, so it too may date from April 1136.

Henry's charter is now lost, and it is that of Stephen which has allowed the fair to be held continuously for over 850 years. It is genuine and still valid, but does not tie the fair to any particular piece of land, except that it must be held in the parish of Woodkirk or township of West Ardsley. In fact the fair is known to have moved several times in the past, and will now have to be moved again, though only within West Ardsley.

A printed copy of Stephen's charter for Woodkirk Fair was published in the original Latin in 1916 by William Farrer, the leading authority on early Yorkshire charters. A translation is provided below.

From Stephen, by the Grace of God King of the English and Duke of the Normans, to Thurstan Archbishop of York, Ilbert de Lacy, the Sheriff, everyone of his Barons and loyal subjects, French and English, in Yorkshire, greetings.

Let it be known that I allow the canons of St. Oswald to hold a fair at Woodkirk on the two days before the Feast of the Assumption of Mary and the feast day itself, and on the two days before the Feast of the Nativity of Mary and the feast day itself let it be held with goodwill and in peace, calm and honour, with all those customs which are appropriate and due at a fair, such as the best they held in the time of King Henry, such as were commanded by his charter.

And let everyone come to the fair and go from it, with all their goods, secure in my peace, and let nothing disturb them, nor any insult or injury be done to them; those who commit any of the above will forfeit ten pounds.

Witnesses, the Bishop of Carlisle and Roger the Chancellor, at Oxford".

As can be seen, Stephen's Royal Charter is actually for two three-day fairs, to be held on August 13th, 14th and 15th, and September 6th, 7th and 8th. There is a tradition that Woodkirk Fair lasted for 'three weeks and three days' during the middle ages, but the charter does not allow for this, and the total span of the dates is in fact three weeks and five days.

However, it may be that many who had travelled great distances on foot or on horseback stayed over from one three-day fair to the next, and unofficially made a continuous event lasting more than three weeks.

England's Oldest Surviving Charter Fair

Dozens of charter fairs were established throughout England, mainly before 1700, but over the years most have either fallen into disuse or had their charters cancelled. Four miles away, at Adwalton, a fair was hold outside the White Hart Inn until 1903, which existed by Letters Patent of Queen Elizabeth granted in February 1576. There were two charter fairs at Wakefield, in June granted by Henry III in 1258, and in November by King John in 1204. At Nostell Priory itself, King Stephen allowed a five-day fair centred on the 9th August, the Feast of St. Oswald, but this was discontinued centuries ago, though the terms were very similar to those for Woodkirk Fair.

Well known fairs still in operation include Appleby, which dates from 1685, and Brough Hill (1330), both in Westmoreland, now Cumbria.

Seamer (1383) and Yarm are in the old North Riding, and Stow-on-the-Wold (1476) in Gloucestershire has recently been in the news because of doubts about its future.

Very old charters can certainly be legally valid. Topcliffe Fair in North Yorkshire was last held in 1969 but was only stopped after its charter, which dated from 1343, had been cancelled at the end of lengthy legal proceedings under the terms of the Fairs Act of 1871. The order to abolish Topcliffe Fair was finally signed by the Home Secretary, Jim Callaghan, on 16th March 1970.

Lee Fair, as Woodkirk Fair is now known, is believed to be the oldest charter fair in England still in existence . During the middle ages, it became one of the most famous, and although all manner of goods were sold, it was noted chiefly for its trade in woollen cloth. Merchants are said to have come from France, northern Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, for England was then the greatest producer of wool, at a time when linen and silk were the only other fabrics in common use.

Wakefield Manor Court

Although Nostell Priory held the charter, the Manor Court of Wakefield seems to have kept order. Most of its records still exist, from 1274 until 1913, when the abolition of copyhold land-tenure took away its last important function, the registration of changes of copyhold ownership within the Manor.

Wakefield Manor Court in 1306 ordered the arrest of John, servant of Henry of Swillington, who was alleged to have stolen a hide worth 15 pence at Woodkirk Fair.

A court held at Wakefield in October 1315 heard how Alice of Scarborough alleged that John of Heaton had dragged her across the fairground by her hair and beaten her with a stick. She claimed 100 shillings damages. John of Newcastle similarly claimed 100 shillings from John of Heaton, who was also alleged to have overturned the stall of William the Carter, who claimed for 20 gallons of beer worth 2 shillings and 6 pence, cheese worth 12 pence, a sack worth 8 pence, vessels worth 12 pence and other damages totalling 40 shillings.

John of Heaton had to pay damages and was also fined 40 pence. These offences had taken place on Monday, the Feast of the Nativity, that is 8th September 1315, then the chief day of 'Latter Fair'.

At a court held in Wakefield on 17th September 1333, Geoffrey Birkenshaw and his wife Alice sued Hugh Dishforth for assault at Woodkirk on the Feast of the Nativity and claimed 20 shillings damages.

Ossett and Alverthorpe were also part of the Manor, and at the same court Hugh Dishforth was fined 6 pence for allowing pigs to escape at Ossett, and Geoffrey Birkenshaw 2 pence for keeping a pig 'contrary to prohibition' at Alverthorpe. This perhaps meant keeping one without a ring in its nose, by which it might be led.

It is said that at one time couples meeting at the fair could go to the church at Woodkirk and demand to be instantly married. In view of the quantity of beer available, this may have been a hazardous privilege.

Dissolution Of Nostell Priory

During the 1530's, King Henry VIII found himself in dispute with the Pope, and short of cash, so he decided to take over the monasteries and their lands, which were then quickly sold to raise money. It was rather like nationalisation followed immediately by privatisation, and, as in modern times, those responsible for organising the privatisation did rather well out of it.

Henry VIII appointed Commissioners to visit and value every monastery. Dr. Thomas Lee is said to have been the fattest and most pompous of all the Commissioners, and it was he who valued Nostell Priory. Not long after Nostell was dissolved, on the 20th November 1540, Dr. Lee bought it and most of its assets from the King for £1126 13s 4d. His purchase included several hundred acres in East and West Ardsley and the charter rights to Woodkirk Fair, which entitled him to levy tolls on all the goods and animals sold there.

Woodkirk Fair becomes Lee Fair

After these changes the monks left Woodkirk, and it became just the parish church of West Ardsley and no longer controlled the fair. Until 1540, Woodkirk Fair had probably been centred on fields between the church and the beck to the south, but these became glebe lands owned by the new Vicar of Woodkirk, so Dr. Lee had to move the fair to the Baghill side of the beck, onto common land, and enclosed fields which were part of the Nostell lands in Ardsley which he had bought. Because of this, Woodkirk Fair became Lee Fair, named after Dr. Thomas Lee.

Dr. Lee soon sold his lands in Ardsley, and the rights to the fair, to a branch of the Savile family, who built a new Howley Hall between 1585 and 1590. This enormous mansion was actually in Morley Township, though only one mile west of Woodkirk. The Saviles of Howley became Earls of Sussex, but the male line died out in 1671 and the estate passed by marriage to the Brudenell family, Earls of Cardigan.

Since 1821, the Brudenell-Bruce family, as it now is, has held the title of Marquess of Ailesbury, the heir to the senior tide being known as the Earl of Cardigan. Even now, Brudenell Estates own some land in Ardsley, though much has been sold. Houses being built by McLeans at Ardsley Fall, south of Wood Street, are on some of the remaining Brudenell land, which probably belonged to Nostell until 1540.

The Earls of Cardigan hardly ever used Howley Hall, and it was demolished in 1730, but the charter rights to Lee Fair are probably still held in theory either by Brudenell Estates or personally by members of the family, though they seem to have taken no part in the organisation of the fair, nor have they levied any tolls, since the 19th century or even earlier.

The First Gypsies

Lee Fair has long been a meeting place for Romany families, who may not see each other from one fair to the next. There were no Gypsies, or 'Egyptians' as they were first known, in England before 1500, and very few until after 1520. An Act of Parliament in 1530 sought to prevent further 'Egyptians' from coming into England, and warned people not to be parted from their money by readers of palms, but it does not seem to have been used much.

Very likely, the first Gypsies would have come to the fair around 1540, about the time it was moved from Woodkirk and became Lee Fair. In those days they had no wagons, but lived in tents carried on the backs of ponies. As the roads improved in the 18th century, two-wheeled flat-carts were used, but it was not until about 1850 that the varied designs of four-wheeled covered Gypsy wagons began to appear. Forty years ago, they would be parked up on verges or spare land in and around West Ardsley at the time of the fairs, families having regular pitches which were used year after year.

Only just over four miles from Lee Fair, at Spibey Lane, Rothwell Haigh, were the workshops of William Wright, the most famous builders of traditional Gypsy wagons in the North of England. Usually these were of the canvas-roofed bow-top type, but the heavier and more expensive wooden-roofed ledge wagons were also built. Wrights repaired and repainted older vehicles, as well as building new ones.

The End of the Cloth Trade

For some time after the change of name, Lee Fair carried on much as before, with large quantities of woollen cloth being sold as well as livestock and general merchandise, but on 9th March 1616, by Act of Privy Council, Wakefield was licensed as a wool staple town. Soon, thriving weekly cloth markets there destroyed Lee Fair's traditional trade.

In 1640, the citizens of Barnsley petitioned Parliament, asking that the cloth markets at Wakefield should be suppressed, and that woollen cloth sales in Yorkshire should be allowed only at 15 charter fairs, including those at Barnsley, Pontefract, Ripon and Lee Fair, but nothing was done.

In 1656, a number of people in West Ardsley petitioned the Justices of the Peace of the West Riding to have Lee Fair itself suppressed, and the petition came before Parliament on the 23rd July. Lord Thomas Savile of Howley, who then owned the charter rights, said he would not stand in the way of abolition if it was really necessary, but the charter was not cancelled, and the fair has continued ever since. With spelling modernised, the petition was worded as follows:

'There is a certain fair commonly called Lee Fair yearly kept at Baghill in the said Parish upon two several days within less than a month of each, in the time of harvests, which fair formerly stood in woollen cloth. But since the cloth market has been settled at Wakefield, there has not for these many years been any cloth brought to the said fair. So that it is now utterly decayed and become a tumultuous meeting of the idle and the loose persons of the country, where there is much revelling and drunkenness and has been noted these many years to be a meeting where there is usually more or less bloodshed and some lives lost, and also most labourers and servants hereabouts take occasion thereby to neglect the harvest. And as for commodities brought thither, they are, except for some poor horses, only a few peddling trifles, of which the country may much better, and with as much conveniency, be supplied every market day at Leeds or Wakefield".

This petition was presented towards the end of the Puritan period, when there was a tendency to ban everything that was frivolous, from maypoles to stained glass windows in churches. It confirms that the fair was already being held at Baghill in 1656, and that it was already down to two days; 'several' in the 17th century meant 'separate', rather than its modern meaning of 'a small number'.

New Dates for the Fair

As can be gathered from King Stephen's charter, there were originally two three-day fairs at Woodkirk, on the 13th, 14th and 15th August and 6th, 7th and 8th September. Almost certainly, the two days still kept in 1656 were the 13th August and 6th September, the first days of each of the original fairs.

In 1752, England adopted the modern calendar used in Catholic Europe since 1582. By then, England was 11 days behind most of Europe, so Parliament decided that the 2nd September 1752 should be followed immediately by 14th September, 11 days having been 'taken out' to balance up. There was rioting in London, where some people believed the Pope had cheated them out of 11 days of their lives.

Many traditional events were moved forward in the new calendar by 11 days, to keep to the exact anniversaries of the old calendar. This would have been particularly necessary at Lee Fair, because the change from one calendar to the other took place between First and Latter fairs, and there was no 6th September in England in 1752. Since 1752, First of Lee has been held on 24th August, 11 days forward from the 13th, and Latter Lee on 17th September, 11 days forward from the 6th. If either date falls on a Sunday, the fair is held back a day until Monday.

Changes in the site of the Fair

Few records have been kept, but the fair does seem to have changed sites a number of times, though never more than half a mile from Woodkirk.

From the grant of Henry I's charter until 1540, Woodkirk Fair was probably held on fields south of the church, which became glebe lands of the new vicars of Woodkirk after Nostell Priory was dissolved. Dr. Lee, who bought the charter rights, therefore had to move the fair, and may have centred it on two fields called Fairsteads at the western end of Baghill Green. Fairsteads may have been needed for some special purpose, such as holding unbroken horses, but they only amounted to about two and a half acres, so would not have been big enough for the whole fair. Even today's fields total 5 acres, including the car park.

According to the petition of 1656, Lee Fair was then held at Baghill, but it is uncertain which areas of land were used, or how much, at any one time. Most of the fair was probably held on common land, and a map of 1735 drawn for the Earl of Cardigan shows Lower Lee Fair Green stretching down the steep slope to the beck from Baghill Green. Upper Lee Fair Green went from Church Lane along either side of the line of Westerton Road to beyond the present British Oak. The Lower Green was estimated to be ten and three quarters of an acre and the Upper Green nineteen acres.

Norrisson Scatcherd, writing in 1830, made the unlikely claim that 60 or 70 years earlier the whole fair had been thrown out of Fairsteads onto the Green by the tenant, Isaac Whittaker. The 1735 map shows the two Fairsteads, one indeed tenanted by Isaac Whittaker, behind Manor House Farm, which he rented, and the other, to the west, rented by James Pearson, a freeholder who lived at what is now 185 Haigh Moor Road. Both fields were part of the Cardigan Estate, and therefore probably former Nostell lands. It may be that Whittaker threw part of the fair out, and in so doing could have broken the direct link between it and the Earls of Cardigan.

On the 1735 map, Upper and Lower Lee Fair Green were joined by a narrow lane, now Baghill Road, which passed between enclosed fields. Until about 1960, apart from the present fairground, fields across Baghill Road now occupied by the West Lea estate were also used, all of which in 1735 had been owned by a freeholder, John Boyle, of the family which built Boyle Hall at the top of the hill on Haigh Moor Road in 1799. It may be that the fair was concentrated on Boyle's fields and the Greens after the Fairsteads ceased to be used.

At the north-west end of Church Lane, better known as Donkey Lane to many fair-goers, there was until 1938 a cottage dated 1696 which had at one time been owned by the Boyles who made it into the "Royal Oak public house, though it had not been used as a pub for many years before its demolition. On Baghill Green was the "White Horse", pulled down in 1955 after a period of disuse, and replaced by a private house of the same name.

A third Lee Fair pub to come to a sticky end was the "British Oak", which stood where the lay-by in front of Westerton School now is. This began to collapse during the 1930's, and Bentley's Yorkshire Brewery (BYB), made the present "British Oak" by converting a farm-house on the other side of the road, towards Westerton.

Until the 1970's, the "Bull's Head" at Syke Corner, the "Hare and Hounds" and the "British Oak' had highly valued all-day licences on fair-days, but then went to the opposite extreme and closed all day. Now, when every pub is entitled to stay open all day, only the Lee Fair pubs are closed on fair-days.

In 1828 all common land in Ardsley, including the Greens, was enclosed, which must have caused further difficulty for the fair, because from then on only private land and roadside verges were available, and the fields made from Upper Green were gradually built on. The growth of nearby towns and the mining industry created a big demand for horses and pit ponies, which kept Lee Fair alive well into this century, but it declined after 1945 because, although there were fewer working horses, the great increase in horse riding for pleasure had not yet taken place.

A field below Baghill Green, made by enclosing the Lower Green, was used particularly for trying the pace of horses until the 1930's, and decreasingly into the early 1950's. At about that time, the present fair-field was made available by the Cockayne family as an over-spill from West Lea.

After the loss of the West Lea fields to housing, by 1960, only Cockayne's field was left, which was just about enough, as some of the attendances in the 1960's and early 1970's were very poor, particularly for Latter Lee. Since then, there has been a revival, and car-parking has been allowed on additional land beyond the remaining field. In 1993, helped by good weather and increasing interest in horses, both fairs were very well attended, about 1000 people coming to each. If many more had turned up, the fields would hardly have been big enough.

For more than 30 years, the Cockaynes have generously allowed the whole fair to be held on their land, but now the ownership has come down to two elderly ladies who are reluctant to carry on. The West Ardsley Lee Fair Action Group offered to help, and for many months tried to interest Leeds City Council in this very important historic event, but without success. It would not even reply to letters, and only on the 1st August finally confirmed its decision not to support the fair, which prompted the Cockayne family to withdraw permission for further fairs on its land after 1994.

By then, very little time was left to find a site for next year in time to let everyone know as they attended this year's fairs, but the Action Group will make every effort to find a new field somewhere in West Ardsley. After more than 850 years, Lee Fair must go on.

Notes on the 1994 Edition

FOREWORD: Tom Leadley is now chairman of the Lee Fair Committee. His address is as in 1994, with a revised telephone number (0113) 253 5677.

KING STEPHEN'S ROYAL CHARTER: Farrer published the charter in 1916, not 1913.

Bishop Adelulf of Carlisle, who witnessed the charter, was at the same time Prior of the canons of St. Oswald at Nostell.

ENGLAND'S OLDEST SURVIVING CHARTER FAIR: St. Oswald's Fair was moved from Nostell to Wakefield in 1331, but was not a success there either and finished after a few years.

Letters Patent were granted in 1685 for an April fair at Appleby. Although there was a "300th anniversary' procession in 1985, the present June fair at Appleby was originally "a show of horses, sheep and of black cattle’, permitted by a resolution of Appleby Borough Council in 1750. Appleby is easily the largest horse fair in Great Britain, but it is not very old, nor is it chartered.

WAKEFIELD MANOR COURT: the Court building was demolished in 1913, but the Court itself was not wound up until 1925.

In 1326, Hugh Dishforth was tried at York and acquitted of murdering Adam Gawthorpe.

Pigs were fitted with nose-rings to stop them rooting, rather than to allow them to be led. They also had to be fitted with wooden yokes to stop them pushing through gaps in hedges and fences.

DISSOLUTION OF NOSTELL PRIORY: some sources date this to 1540, but really it took place in 1539.

NEW DATES FOR THE FAIR: Lee Fair is always held back to Monday when the true date falls on a Sunday, and this is not mere tradition; it is in compliance with an Act of Parliament, the Sunday Fairs Act of 1448, which banned charter fairs on Sundays but allowed them to be moved to adjacent days.

CHANGES IN THE SITE OF THE FAIR: planning documents available in 1994 gave the size of the old fair fields as 2.03 hectares (5 acres); in fact, the extent was 2.03 acres, or less than one hectare. Our new field is of 5 acres, with another 7 for parking, giving about 12 acres in all, six times as big as the old site.

In 1994 and '95, the Hare and Hounds opened for the fairs, and the Bull's Head in 1995-7, but both are likely to stay closed in 1998.

Further reading

How Lee Fair was saved

By a booklet that was first sold at First of Lee 1994.

More

Also read about

How the Fair was Saved

This booklet was first sold at First of Lee 1994.

Read more

 

Appleby Fair

The Fair, in Appleby-in-Westmorland, is the most famous of the Traveller Fairs in England and attracts people from all over the world.

Read more

 

Top of page    Mail page    Print page