Topcliffe Fair

A Memory of Topcliffe.

I lived on Long Street in Topcliffe 1958-1972 - opposite the old school, which is now a post office, and therefore on the other side of the road from this photo. I was excited by the fair, horses trotting along the road, smells, sights and sounds different from usual, lots of people, including photographers who wanted to take pictures from our upstairs windows and the occasional visitor who would ask to use our loo. Gypsy children attended Topcliffe school in the period before the fair, one family came for several years running, the boys wore orangey-brown boots. Village people and the gypsies didn't seem to mix, although I've been told that a generation earlier, gypsies came to give condolences on the death of my grandfather who had been a butcher in the village, so there must have been some channels  of communication. And for the generation before my grandfather, I believe that the fair lasted three days or more, including fairground rides???  In 1969 or early 1970, I spotted a notice on the door of the village shop saying that the next fair would be the last, by authority of the then Home Secretary (James Callaghan, who later became Prime Minister); the reason given for stopping the fair was that it caused traffic problems on the A168, the road in this picture, Topcliffe didn't get a by-pass until the mid 1970s. Unofficially, I heard that the stoppage was also connected with a degree of ill-feeling. The last fair was a bit of a damp squib, fewer gypsies and horses.

The fair left such a strong impression on me, I now regularly visit Appleby in Westmorland Fair, which is the largest gypsy/traveller event of its kind in Europe, but I think that visit is the key word, just as in the days of Topcliffe fair, there seems to be a glass wall between the gypsies and the spectators, interaction between the two groups seems to be minimal although I was once offered a lift to the fair by a family in a vardo who were about 30 miles from Appleby - the offer was very tempting.

So, lots of rich memories of Topcliffe fair, sorry that it ended.