Corby Glen
Sheep Fair
Corby Glen was once a small thriving town, the Glen refers to the river and was affixed to the name in 1955 to distinguish it from other Corbys in the country and the size of the Market Place reminds us that it has been an important local centre since the early 13th century. The market cross, erected in the reign of Edward III (1312-1377) is the first thing you see on entering the square and it was from here that visiting monks preached the word of God to stallholders and townsfolk while they went about their business because the market created a ready made audience, a captive congregation.
No more weekly markets are held here and the Sheep Fair which is held every October is the last remaining of the great sheep fairs once held across England. It owes it origins to a Royal Charter granted by Henry III in 1238 which decreed that one Hammo Pecche and his heirs had the right to hold fairs at Corby on the Feast of the Assumption and until the 1930s it was usually held on the first Monday before October 10th. This was a general market for the sale of sheep, cattle and horses although sheep were always the principal item. Traditionally, the beasts were kept in a bunch or tethered by the roadside while only the sheep were penned and until the end of the 19th century, the wooden collapsible pens were provided by the Lords of the Manor at Irnham Estate.
The spirit of the fair remains although in years past sheep were driven to Corby by their shepherds and buyers and sellers stayed in the village overnight. There were further changes in the character of the fair after the Second World War. Previously, sheep had either been brought in by drovers or by train over the weekend but the closing of the railway station in 1959 and the growing use of road transport enabled sheep to be brought in by livestock transporters in the early morning and taken away the same evening, the custom that continues today. Meanwhile, legislation that introduced the breathalyser in 1967 in an attempt to deter motorists from drinking and driving reduced the conviviality of the fair for farmers and fewer now congregate in the bars of the historic Woodhouse Arms, the hostelry that overlooks the village green, and in Corby's two other remaining hostelries, the Fighting Cocks and the Glazier's Arms.
Nevertheless, fair day is still as in years past, a red letter day in the village calendar and the festivities that surround it start on a Friday and continue throughout the weekend until the last sheep has gone on Monday evening.
Stalls are erected in the historic Market Square from Friday onwards with country crafts and memorabilia much in evidence and a fun fair with swings, roundabouts and sideshows is located on the green. There is also a horticultural show in the village school and a display of local produce together with jazz bands, Morris dancing and one year a mediaeval mystery play was staged by pupils of the Corby Glen primary school. Archery demonstrations, local history displays, art and photographic exhibitions, a wheelbarrow race, a conker competition, tug of war, a dog show and even a competition to guess the weight of a sheep - all have found a place in the festivities in recent years and then there is always the harvest festival service in the village church on Sunday evening.
There was a pleasure fair here throughout the 19th century when it was held in the Market Place with the traditional sideshows, gingerbread stalls, shooting galleries and boxing booths. Older residents can still recall the mass of stalls in the Market Place with swing-boats and roundabouts, skittling for a copper kettle and in some years, stalls for the sale of goods produced locally that would attract people from the village and the surrounding countryside.
Early on Monday morning the familiar pens are erected on every available green space in the village in readiness for the day's sale and by mid-morning the sheep have been trucked in for the auction. Expert eyes assess their qualities as owners wait anxiously for the bidding to begin and by late afternoon it is all over and the transporters head for home for another year.
But the fair has in the past had another purpose, that of bringing together families who have been split when sons and daughters left the village to pursue marriage and careers elsewhere and this event was the catalyst for a weekend reunion, visits made possible by the coming of the railway which brought travel across counties within the reach of most people. Stuffed chine topped the bill of fare at family get-togethers and on the eve of the fair in October 1867, villager George Bird wrote in his diary: "Mother very busy making plum cakes, cheesecakes and such like." The widespread increase in car ownership has to some extent diminished the tradition of such gatherings at fair time.
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Children and
teachers from the village school visiting the fair |
Nevertheless, if any one annual event links Corby's agricultural heritage with the present community and at the same time charts the relative decline of the village then it is this. The sheep fair mirrors the economic conditions of the district and the local farming industry in past centuries when the farmer's financial year was organised around this event for at this time they were forced to sell sheep to settle rent arrears. The fair, like the village, was in relative decline towards the end of the 18th century but it picked up during the 19th century and in 1863 George Bird wrote in his diary of "the largest shew of sheep, beasts and horses that has ever been seen on the ground before." He also mentioned that there was talk of making the fair a two-day event. The following year, 93 truckloads of sheep and beasts were sent away by train alone. In 1876, there were 12,000 sheep penned and the next year there were only 7,400 and in 1882 George Bird wrote: "Corby Fair the poorest I've seen, not above 5,000 sheep penned." By the turn of the century, the number of sheep in the sale had risen slightly to 6,000 but in 1913 the figure had again dropped, this time to only 4,000 "and few beasts and foals either".
The agricultural depression of the last quarter of the 19th century had a sudden but decisive impact on the Corby Fair but in the wake of this decline, the associated activities also suffered and by the 1930s the sale of beasts and cattle had died out but the ram fair remained. As a result, the Corby Fair continues today with vigour and enthusiasm and although numbers no longer reach the peaks of past times and market fluctuations continue, there is little likelihood that it will disappear in the immediate future.
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