In May 2019 a meter high statue was unveiled in Hall Place, Spalding commemorating the times when Spalding had a May Hiring Fair where agricultural workers would be signed on for the year by their employers. These were significant events and sometimes a little unruly
“SPALDING NEWS – The May-day Statutes for the hiring of servants took place at Spalding, on Monday, the 1st of May, and we are glad to state that, although there was much drinking and some drunkenness, there was a marked improvement on the customs of olden time, when Johnny thought it the correct thing to do, was to get gloriously drunk, and fight out any old quarrel which he happened to have had.
Custom, fashion, or the progress of the age, has decreed that a fighting man is a blackguard, and that a drunken man is a nuisance. The altered state of public opinion is gradually but surely ameliorating the besetting sin of drunkenness; even the agricultural labourer, out for his holiday, begins to see that by getting drunk, he not only makes a fool of himself, but also wastes his hard got earnings; hence it is that beyond the few isolated cases , the great May-day Statute now passes off without those scenes of riot and wholesale intoxication which, twenty years ago, regularly characterised the day. It is much to be regretted that some rational amusement is not provided for the industrious lads and lasses, who assemble in such large numbers on these occasions, instead of being left to the ‘twopenny hop’ at the public house, or the tender mercies of the nut-hawkers, card-sharpers, and other prowling vagabonds, who regularly enter an appearance at the statute fairs.
Can no one organise some real fun and jollity for the rustics, which would attract, and which they could enjoy without regret.”[i][1]
[1] South Holland Magazine 1871
Comments