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| The Leeds Fair |
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A highlight for most of the people of Leeds was the fairs. This was a time to make merry and enjoy oneself. Until the 1840s, when the Council leased land on Woodhouse Moor, just outside the town, the fair was held on Briggate and the land where the Holy Trinity Church would be built on Boar Lane. In November 1789, Isaac Tyson, a schoolmaster in Boar lane, wrote a poem about the Leeds Fair, perhaps while he was looking from his window at the spectacle. |
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Butchers Bragging, landlords coaxing Rapping, roaring, thumping, pricking Poor dumb beasts for only kicking One-eyed horses - dirt a-flying Broken shins and '… your blood, sir!' 'Clear the way! 'He's sound and good, sir' Swindlers cheating simple ninnies Popping, thrusting, jerking, robbing Laughing this day, next day sobbing Prudes in Limbo, coquettes prattling Raree shows of short and long men Bears and wolves and weak and strong men Some quite down and others keeling Town bloods dem-ming, blustering, puffing Homespun Johnnies rudely cuffing Rogues at dead of night and Many a bargain - if you strike it This is Leeds fair, how d'ye like it? |
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Some of the words may have you mystified…. They did me… these may help Popping - chattering Dem-ming - most likely
swearing, cursing |
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