Wells is a place full of history, whether that be going back hundreds of years or a handful of decades.

Welcome to our Back In Time feature, where Wells Nub News looks at people, places and events that have shaped our city.

In this latest article, Richard Green examines the history of the fairs at Binegar and Priddy.

With both the Wells May Charter Fair and the November Charter Fair cancelled due to the Covid-19 virus, they have comparisons to the Black Death plague when the fairs were relocated to the nearby Mendip Hills, where the air was apparently much fresher.

Straight away it has to be said that at all the official record offices and museums there are no conclusive evidence that the Priddy events were actually any of the Wells fairs, while for Binegar there are few photographs but the history is more intriguing.

Legend has it that Priddy was held on the Wednesday nearest August 21, though with the calendar change of 1752 it was apparently held on August 10, St Lawrence Day, but either way there were never any Wells fairs held in that month.

To add to the confusion, Priddy Fair was for a period of time held in October, and while Wells had two October Charter Fairs, there is still no evidence of a link between them.

Binegar, several miles to the east of Priddy, was widely believed to be the Wells May Charter Fair, though here it was held over the Whitsun period and lasted for four days and held in the field next to the church.

Binegar was a sheep fair like Priddy and they have records of drovers bringing them there, and while Wells carried on with their fairs back in the city after the Black Death, both Binegar and Priddy maintained their adopted events.

With both being very commercially successful, the Bishops of Wells were unhappy in the loss of revenue, and as a settlement Binegar was offered 50 shillings for its return to Wells, which was refused.

Binegar carried on, and the likes of Thomas Hardy who had already used Weyhill fair in The Mayor of Casterbridge and Woodbury Fair in Far from the Madding Crowd, was to use Binegar Fair in two more books, A Tragedy of Two Ambitions and A Pair of Blue Eyes.

As with most fairs of the time they were lively events, with the livestock sales, the travelling gypsies, the travelling showmen amusements, and with the food and drink flowing they often turned into drunken riotous affairs.

Likewise there are stories of one which is true being that it was not just the bishops who wanted the Rights of Binegar, but two travellers from Gloucestershire who paid nearly £40 between themselves for the privilege.

The Bishops of Wells being very displeased who were already earning rich pickings from the Wells Charter Fairs, also wanted revenue from Binegar, and they went to the Court of the Exchequer with their case, which after a long period of time they were to win their case.

As for these two Gloucestershire travellers, they were what we term today as conmen!

Both Binegar and Priddy Fairs are no more, their history still resonates today.

Back In Time

See our previous Back In Time article: The history of Wells Recreation Ground