How big was Blackwater Fair?

It seems that Blackwater Fair was extremely large. The answer was published in the Yateley Society Newsletter no.29 in January 1987. The extract was found by the late Sydney Loader, one of the Society's two founder Vice Presidents, in a book by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald. There are two references to the latter's sources: William Cobbett and Sidney Webb. It would be useful to trck down the original references to find out if there is further information. A very interesting project would be to find out who organised the fair each year. PJT

BLACKWATER FAIR

Sydney Loader found this information about Blackwater Fair in Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald's book 'Garden alive' in Yateley Library:

"The cattle were Welsh Blacks from the summer and autumn fairs of Wales. And the droves were huge: Sidney Webb, in his English Local Government, puts the total destined for London and southern England at 30,000 head annually. The great cattle fair in this neighbourhood was at Blackwater on 8 November. Blackwater was a 'cattle Clapham Junction'. It was there that the huge herds were split up to take different routes for London, the coast and various parts of south-east England. In autumn and winter the herds of Welsh Blacks, small tough beasts with long horns, and their mounted drovers 'gabbling a strange tongue' (all, of course, spoke perfect English when need arose!) were a familiar sight in this neighbourhood. Cobbett mentions herds of two thousand and more.

Ten miles was roughly a day's journey for a herd. So far as possible hard roads were avoided, the herds keeping (as they did all the way from Wales) to tracks across commons and heaths. Indeed, the drovers would add a day to the journey by 'going round' rather than take their beasts on the roads. The drovers had to know the country very well indeed; had to know how the commons and heaths followed on and, particularly, they had to know the ponds, for watering was very, very important, and had to arrange to arrive at them at a reasonable time. (Food could always be bought - indeed, the passing of the Welsh Blacks brought good trade to the farmers along the route - but watering 150 or more head of cattle at the end of a day's march could prove a real problem."

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