All the Fun of the Fair

This book, by Bill Pearson, covers the history of fairs and festivals in Nantwich. The fairs were a mixture of business and pleasure. Livestock, clothes and hardware would be bought and sold, and labour recruited.

The fun of the fair used to include: “bull, bear and badger-baitings; cock-fighting; sack-racing; bolting hot porridge or dumplings (barm-balls, or barm-baws, as Nantwich people called them); swarming greasy poles, and grinning through horse-collars.

Funfairs are also covered, with coverage of the large Simons & Greatorex fair company – who had a permanent base in Nantwich.

There’s even a piece of music, called Nantwich Fair Music.