A History of Preston
in Hertfordshire
The origins of the fair at Preston Green are unknown. The Victorian History of Hertfordshire gives a detailed breakdown of when, and by whom, the fair at Hitchin was granted but makes only a brief reference to Preston Fair stating that, ‘There are also two fairs at Preston held on 1 May and 23 October (in 1816) and later on the first Wednesday in May and on the Wednesday before 29 October’.
Preston’s fair was probably not held between 900 and 1516 AD as it is not included in the Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales for that period. A letter from Ralph Radcliffe of Hitchin Priory to his brother, Edward, dated 17 October 1734 is the first historical allusion to the fair at Preston:
The letter reads in part: “I was yesterday at Preston Fair where few sheep (?) were
sold. I disposed of seven score of my Welbury flock at 15 shillings a head -
Further information about Preston’s fair is provided by Owen’s New Book of Fairs which in 1816 identifies Preston’s as a sheep fair.
To put the fair at Preston into its local context, there were thirty fairs held in
the whole of Hertfordshire in the early nineteenth century -
Sheep fairs at Preston were held twice a year until at least 1864 as they were still
being advertised in local newspapers. But by 1873, from the evidence of comments
in the Preston School log book, it was no longer a sheep fair but a fun fair -
Sheep farming on the Chilterns and at Preston
The small cluster of sheep fairs around Hitchin indicates that sheep farming was
an important form of agriculture in North Hertfordshire. Nigel Agar in Behind the
Plough writes of the high chalk of the Chilterns, ‘the vast wind-
The first extant historical reference to shepherds around Preston is of my greatx2
grandfather, Joseph Currell (1800 -
The censuses of the nineteenth century provide snapshots of Preston farms and their shepherds as follows:
This information is not comprehensive. Newspaper reports tell us that Benjamin Hill at Pond Farm had a shepherd boy in 1843 and that Mr Wright of Preston Hill Farm had a shepherd in 1842.
What can be said from this evidence is that in the nineteenth century, at least five farms at Preston had enough sheep to warrant a shepherd.
As well as local sheep, those brought to Preston Fair could have been augmented by
flocks from a radius of up to twenty-
So twice a year, Preston was invaded by shepherds, their sheep dogs and hundreds,
or more likely, thousands of sheep -
1851 -
1861 -
1871 -
1881 -
1891 -
1901 -
1911 -
In around 1870, the Preston Fair evolved into an annual funfair. The village children were allowed an afternoon’s holiday from school. It was an highlight of their year for which they saved for weeks. Rather than attending school, they gathered acorns which were sold as pig fodder to have some pennies in their pockets.
We have no descriptions of the fair at Preston so perhaps a detailed report by Edwin
Grey of the fair at the nearby village of Harpenden will paint a picture of festivities.
The fair was eagerly anticipated especially by the children and young people, not
only of the village but also the folk living in the surrounding countryside. All
local residents, cottagers and the well-
The stalls featured roundabouts, swings, shooting galleries, show booths which were
the most popular attractions especially if bespangled young ladies danced on a platform
outside or a clown or two acting their tomfoolery. The roundabout was pulled by a
horse – and a bell sounded to end the ride. The shows were well patronised. Crude
drawings and pictures enticed people to gawp at astounding freaks of nature and if
the show didn’t quite live up to the hype, it was all part of the fun. There were
performing ponies, birds, mice and even fleas. The ‘Baked Pear Vendor’ was a popular
stall – a neat, little old lady in a black dress, poke bonnet, spotlessly white apron
and little shawl over her shoulders who doled out saucers full of stewed pears. In
the evening in 1873, a gypsy fiddler was playing for dancers in the Red Lion, Preston.
After enjoying ‘all the fun of the fair’, the children were over-
After 1914, the only evidence of Preston’s sheep fair history were the wide paths
that criss-
Preston’s funfair
Perhaps some of the flavour of Preston’s sheep fair is captured in Thomas Hardy’s poem, A Sheep Fair:
The day arrives of the autumn fair,
And torrents fall,
Though sheep in throngs are gathered there,
Ten thousand all,
Sodden, with hurdles round them reared:
And, lot by lot, the pens are cleared,
And the auctioneer wrings out his beard,
And wipes his book, bedrenched and smeared,
And takes the rain from his face with the edge of his hand,
As torrents fall.
The wool of the ewes is like a sponge
With the daylong rain:
Jammed tight, to turn, or lie, or lunge,
They strive in vain.
Their horns are soft as finger-
Their shepherds reek against the rails,
The tied dogs soak with tucked-
The buyers’ hat-
Which spill small cascades when they shift their stand
In the daylong rain.
‘Shepherd in melting snow with Offley Holes in the distance’ by Samuel Lucas
Why did the sheep fairs at Preston cease being held? Probably because in common with
many other fairs, the supply of local sheep dwindled. An unexpected likely reason
for this at Preston was the emergence of the railway -
A village fair (from Illustrated London News 1843)