For this week’s Flashback, we are sharing one of the columns written by our late historian Arthur Attwod MBE in February 2002. In this piece for the Gazette, he shares the book ‘Fairs & Markets of Basingstoke’, written by Mr Steven Pugh.

MR STEVEN Pugh of Loveridge Close, Harrow Way, Basingstoke, has made an excellent attempt to fill a void in Basingstoke’s history by writing a book about the fairs, markets, carnivals, etc, of Basingstoke.

Realising its specialist appeal – although it is available on a limited scale at £8, including postage and packing, from the author at 2 Loveridge Close, Basingstoke – Mr Pugh thinks a good idea is to make it available from the public library or Willis Museum.

Much thought and research has been put into this work which has photographs, but it can be split into two parts. The first analyses in great depth, the origin of fairs from the earliest times when they were for commercial purposes. It documents their history through to the time when fairs took place on fixed, annual dates, when the street fairs consisted of stalls from which a variety of articles could be bought, with commercial sides taking the place of amusements and rides.

With amusements came the showmen, whose name lives on – people like Sam Stokes, who had permanent headquarters at the old Brook Street fairground, let out annually to Jacob Studt.

In my young days, the annual fair would be held in October, with a second fair being held at The Wheatsheaf Meadow, Sarum Hill.

Mr Loveridge rightly deals at length with the Basingstoke carnival which was so popular. Their cessation in recent years is much lamented. Dare I say that Mr Pugh, by his writing, may stir the hearts of local people to bring such popular amusement back again.

The intelligent approach brings to light why Basingstoke has the area known as Fairfields to the south of the town, where the Fairfields were not only used for growing wheat but for huge sheep fairs, where literally tens of thousand of sheep would be penned. Eventually, the sheep fairs moved to Overton and to Weyhill, where one of the biggest sheep fairs in southern England was held.

The book emphasises how, in later years, Hackwood Park staged point-to-point racing, and, many years earlier, when there were race meetings at east Basingstoke on what was known as the Little Common and at the Old Down, Kempshott, where the name Down Grange remains.

As regards the fairs in the age of steam, the fascination with powerful steam traction engines being used to provide light and power brought people in from miles around.

Some of these giants were built by Basingstoke engineers at Wallis & Steevens.

These are well illustrated, some in colour. They always fill me with a sense of pride.

As regards the carnivals, these are well illustrated. How much I regret the passing of the carnival processions. Some of the best were those at the time when many new firms had moved in with the “overspill” scheme. I am sure that many of our newcomers had never expected, or seen, anything so commendable, with the very ornate decorations being the work of the new workforce, many giving up their spare time to produce what so often were real works of art. A by-product was the money, often very considerable, raised for charity.

The chapter on the circus is most enlightening. The author says wild animals were first seen at fairgrounds in the late 19th and early-20th century, when such sights were classed as menageries. It was not many years before travelling zoos became the fashion, with such names as Bostocks and Wombwells and Lord George Sanders becoming very well known. From then on, the circus was born, for the national performances in London and other major cities attracted thousands.

The travelling circuses then became the fashion, with Basingstoke often one of the venues. Many of my generation, in our younger days, often had the opportunity to see such spectacles.

One circus whose headquarters I often cycled past was that of Billy Smart’s near Windsor. Steven Pugh said this circus comprised herds of elephants, highland cattle, 12 jungle lions, Arab stallion horses, monkeys, llamas and tigers, and was labelled “Britain’s Biggest Big Top Show”.

To see the vans with the animals and the erection of the big top was a time of great excitement for us children. What a service the author has rendered by recapturing the scene.

This book, however, contains much more.

It delves into so many more revealing facts of how such entertainments as fairs, carnivals, circuses, etc, arose from small beginnings.

It is a novel work which will be sought after. The text is supplemented by a number of pictures and reproductions of notices of fairs etc, over 100 years old.

The late Arthur Attwood MBE was a columnist for The Gazette. He passed away in March 2002. You can purchase his book The Illustrated History of Basingstoke on Amazon.