August in Particular

Lammas 1st August

Also known as the Feast of First Fruits, Lammas is a festival of the first harvest when the corn was made in to bread and offered in churches. Lammas lands were opened for common winter grazing. Trees (especially oaks) put on a second flush of bright leaves, known as Lammas growth.

Early August

St Wilfrid's Feast Procession, Ripon, N. Yorks, float parade on the Saturday before first Monday in August (which can sometimes be the last weekend in July!), commemorating St Wilfred who was bishop of Ripon in the 7th century. Contact Teresa Baier, +44(0)1765 601730, or read more on Ripon's town web-site.

Brigg Horse Fair, Brigg, N.Lincs - horse trading, street entertainment, stalls, music. Contact Brigg TIC +44(0)1724 297353 for the date. Brigg Fair was immortalised in a tone poem by the composer Frederick Delius. Read more on the BriggLife web-site.

Gooseberry Contest, Egton Bridge, N.Yorks. The Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2001. The contest is won by the largest berry whether of a white, green, yellow or red variety, although there are also prizes for the largest berries in each class. Growing gooseberries for show started in the 18th century in Lancashire, where workers' cottage gardens were ideally situated. There were once 700 shows across the country and 78 varieties of gooseberry, but the two World Wars diminished the numbers. After the First World War, when often all the men from a town or village went to fight, there were only 40 shows and to-day there are only eight, across Cheshire and at Holmes Chapel, Lancashire. The judging is from 9am-12.30 with the fruits on display in the afternoon and music, prize giving and a raffle in the evening. In order to take part in the annual contest you must be a paid up member of the Society on Easter Tuesday of that year. Contact Mr Preston, Chairman of the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society on +44(0)1947 810332.

Cheshire has eight Gooseberry Shows each year, notably at Holmes Chapel

Scarecrow Festival, Kettlewell, Yorks - over 100 life-size scarecrows made and displayed around the village by local people in early to mid-August. Find out more on the Yorkshire Net web-site.

Rushbearing, Forest Chapel, nr Macclesfield, Cheshire- Held on the Sunday on or after August 12, this marks the renewal of rushes, strewn on the pews and floor of the church to make it dry and warm. This custom died out here in the 17th century when rushes were thought to harbour infection, and was not revived until the 19th century. Rushes from local streams are collected and plaited in a particular way (a skill which is passed down locally) and interwoven with marigolds. The evensong service starts at 3pm and usually moves outside to accommodate the large congregation who sit on the grass banks, while the preacher stands on a gravestone. People often bring a picnic lunch to precede the service. The term rushbearing is thought, here, to come from the custom of parishioners attending the service bearing armfuls of rushes. Contact the Church Warden, Janice Peaching on +44(0)1625 424045.

Mid-August

Saddleworth Rushcart, W Yorks. This custom was revived in the mid-1970s, and continues to be held on the second weekend after 12 August. This marks the weekend of the Saddleworth Wakes, when mills and factories had their annual week's holiday. The reeds (12-1500 bundles) are collected from the moors three weeks before the event and built onto the cart in the week before. A jockey from the Saddleworth Morris Men rides the 15' high cart as it is pulled around the Saddleworth villages during Saturday by Morris and mumming groups from all over the area and the home side. There are displays of all styles of Morris at each village and then an evening of music back at Uppermill, in the Church Inn and Cross Keys Inn. On Sunday morning the cart is pulled up the steep hill to the mother church for a service where the cart and morris men are blessed. There is a display from all the sides outside the church in the natural arena, where 2-3000 people have been know to attend, sitting on the banks. There are also competitions for wrestling, music, clog stepping and gurning and music in the pubs again on Sunday Night. Contact Richard Hankinson +44(0)1457 834871 or look at this web-site. 

Hampshire Water Festival, Winchester, organised by Hants County Council with help from Common Ground annually from 2003. Read more about the Festival and the earlier Common Ground Water Market in Blandford Forum here. See more events in Winchester during May and June.

Blaisdon Plum Day, Glos. On the Sunday of the weekend before August Bank Holiday Monday, 2-4.30pm. Visit the garden of the Red Hart where you will be able to enjoy the very local fruit, the Blaisdon Red Plum. Contact Joyce Lilly +44(0)1452 830160.

Priddy Sheep Fair, Somerset - Wednesday before 21st August. Traditional sheep fair with sheep and horse trading, along with fun-fair and stalls. Contact Cheddar TIC +44(0)1934 744071 or find out more on the Mendips AONB web-site.

St Philibert's Day 22nd August

Traditional beginning of the Kent cobnut season

St Bartholomew's Day  24th August

Long a significant day in the Fairs calender, it was immortalised by Ben Jonson in his play Bartholomew Fair (1614).

Lee Gap Fair, West Ardsley, near Wakefield, Yorkshire on St Bartholomew's Day is first of two ancient horse fairs, second is Latter Lee, 17 September. This is England's oldest charter fair dating from before 1135 and was once held over three weeks. Contact Mr Leadley +44(0)113 2535677.

Burning the Bartle, West Witton, Wensleydale, Yorkshire. On the Saturday following St Bartholomew's Day, a guy-like effigy stuffed with rags and soaked in paraffin, with eyes lit with electric bulbs, is carried down the main street via numerous pubs to chants about its fate. At Grassgill End the Bartle is stabbed and then set on fire. It probably commemorates the death of a thief who stole from the villagers and was chased down the fellside where he broke his neck and was later burnt at the stake. Contact Leyburn TIC +44(0)1748 829100 or look at this web-site.

August Bank Holiday Weekend

Notting Hill Carnival, London, the biggest street carnival in Europe and, after Rio de Janeiro, the biggest in the world. Contact the Carnival Office on +44(0)20 8964 0544 for dates and times of events.

Plum Day, Pershore. A celebration of plums and things made from them, which first started in 1996. It is held on the August Bank Holiday. Includes produce stalls, identification by comparing fruit stones from a large collection, trees for sale, and an exhibition in the Abbey celebrating the plum growing history of the area which runs for a week from Tuesday 20 August. Contact Marion Freeman, +44 (0)1386 552482.

Marldon Apple Pie Fair is traditionally held on the Sunday of the August Bank Holiday weekend in Marldon, Devon since 1888 in memory of a local farmer, George Hill. Every year he gave the windfalls to his workers to make an enormous apple pie for the village. Nowadays lots of small pies are made and hidden under a big crust, and an Apple-pie Princess is crowned. Contact Paignton TIC +44(0)1803 558383 for dates.

Late August

Opening of the Oyster Fisheries, Colchester, Essex - At the end of August, the mayor of Colchester & other officials travel to the oyster beds in a boat to read an ancient proclamation of 1256 of fishing rights and the mayor pulls up and eats the first oyster to open the season. Contact the Mayor's Office +44(0)1206 282206. See more events in Colchester during October.

Faversham International Hop Festival, Faversham, Kent - a celebration of the hop harvest when thousands of Londoners went to Kent for a working holiday. Contact +44(0)1795 585601 or see the web-site.

New Forest Pony drift - between August and October ponies are rounded up into pounds, young stock are branded and catalogued. There tails are also cut in a certain way to indicate which of the four New Forest districts they are from. Foals and some ponies are removed by their owners to be sold.

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