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In 1749 Oliver went with his
parents to the Prittlewell Summer Fair. They crossed the
Prittle bridge, hurried past the schoolhouse in case the
schoolmaster was about, and climbed the hill. Barely half
way up Oliver could hear the Fair was in full swing. The
bells of St Mary's church were ringing and such a noise
of calling and laughing. People were gathered around the
taverns at the top of the hill, arguing about all sorts
of things Oliver did not understand. His father wanted to
look first at all the colourful stalls set up along both
sides of North Street.
There was one selling
chickens and capons. Another had bowls of oysters and
winkles and whelks, all gathered fresh that day from the
sea. There was cheese and honey, and brooms and brushes,
a tinker's cart with an amazing variety of pots and pans.
Of special interest to Oliver were the stalls selling
toys - hoops you could roll along, tops you could whip
along, toy ships and soldiers and animals and dolls
carved from wood, and all sorts of carts you could pull
along. Oliver thought he would really like one of those.
And along East Street, a
lady with lavender bags on a tray, a baker offering bread
and honey-cakes and a man selling sheep skins and leather
boots. Outside the tavern on East Street, just opposite
the church, a table laden with steaming hot eel pies,
eels fresh from the Priory ponds they were told. The
sight of all those pies was too much for Oliver's dad! He
decided there and then that he would treat the family -
an eel pie and a jug of beer for himself and mutton pies
and mugs of weak beer for Oliver and his mother.
Then into the church
yard. A storyteller telling tales of long ago to a group
of children sitting all around. At the other side of the
church a minstrel in long flowing coat and top hat was
playing a fiddle and singing in a peculiar high pitched
voice. The tanner's wife was selling bunches of sweet
wild flowers, and nearby, a long wooden slide with a
constant stream of children climbing the ladder to the
top. Just inside the church yard beside the gate into
East Street was a big wooden barrel filled with apples
floating on water. You had to grab an apple with your
teeth (hands not allowed), but all Oliver got was a wet
head!
They found something
very interesting tucked away beside the church door - You
rolled balls down a slope and through little holes cut in
a board. The holes were numbered 5, 10, 20, 50, 100. You
could roll five balls for a ha'penny and the person with
the highest score at the end of the day won a big fat
goose! Oliver scored 250. Not bad!
Time to go. Down the
hill, over the bridge and along the leafy lane beside the
Manor House to their cottage. Oliver's mum had a bundle
of candles and pots of honey in a new basket. His dad
bought just one thing - the blacksmith called it a
billock - and Oliver had a small cart which he trundled
up the lane, still wondering if he had scored enough
points to win the big fat goose.
This year's
Summer Fete was quite different from the one Oliver went
to all those years ago. - Well, no, not really, not all
that different.
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