Priddy Sheep and Horse Fair
32 images Created 26 Aug 2013
Set in the Mendip Hills, in the south-western English county of Somerset, the Priddy Sheep fair is host to an odd mix of farmers and travellers.
Two very different kinds of business can be seen: On the village green are the sheep in pens, auctioned off at the best prices using the correct paperwork and under strict disease controls - while down the lane is the field set aside for the travellers, many with West Country accents but also with nearby Welsh and Irish too. Making a deal with them is the traditional spit on the hand and a smacking of palms that sells a pony to another family.
According to tradition, Priddy Sheep Fair moved from the city of Wells in 1348 because of the Black Death and local legend says that as long as the hurdle stack remains in the village, so will the Fair. The fair has been continuously held every year ever since, apart from the recent 2001 and 2007 foot-and-mouth epidemic years.
Two very different kinds of business can be seen: On the village green are the sheep in pens, auctioned off at the best prices using the correct paperwork and under strict disease controls - while down the lane is the field set aside for the travellers, many with West Country accents but also with nearby Welsh and Irish too. Making a deal with them is the traditional spit on the hand and a smacking of palms that sells a pony to another family.
According to tradition, Priddy Sheep Fair moved from the city of Wells in 1348 because of the Black Death and local legend says that as long as the hurdle stack remains in the village, so will the Fair. The fair has been continuously held every year ever since, apart from the recent 2001 and 2007 foot-and-mouth epidemic years.
