Bampton Charter Fair

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Devon Cottage Rental

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-kQoWuDn1A&feature=g-all-pls

Bampton Charter Fair

27 May 2012


NEXT FAIR: Thursday 25th October 2012

Bampton Fair existed even before King Henry III granted it a Royal Charter in 1258 and it is always held on the last Thursday of October. It is one of the oldest surviving Charter Fairs in the country.

For centuries, the fair mainly sold sheep and cattle and was the largest sheep fair in the South West of England. During the 1880′s to the 1980′s it evolved to become the famous Bampton Pony Fair trading in Exmoor ponies.

Today this traditional Devon fair continues to attract local producers of foods and livestock, crafts and traditional skills from Exmoor and its surrounding villages. The streets, church, pubs and venues of Bampton are filled to over flowing with around 100 stalls, entertainments including craft and music workshops, demonstrations and concerts, and funfair.

Bampton, a historic Charter Town, lies in mid Devon close to the Somerset border, and is on the edge of the Exmoor National Park.

This little town has a surprising range of local amenities – shops, pubs, restaurants, businesses, and places to stay. It also has quite a history from the Romans to its early Saxon origins, the Norman castle, the wool and pony trade, the 12th century church, the quarrying of the local stone; now it is a thriving centre used by local villagers and visitors.

Bampton has been famous for over 30 years for its floral displays Bampton In Bloom. The town has won the national Britain in Bloom competition no less than six times, the last being in the millennium year. Bampton has won five gold medals from South West in Bloom in recent years. The town still looks very beautiful throughout the year although we no longer enter the competition.

Since the earliest, maybe stone-age times, Bampton has been the ideal site for a settlement. It is well sheltered in the valley, has the river Batherm running through it, and most importantly is on the intersection of important north-south and east-west routes: the former runs down the Exe valley from Watchet (originally the major port on the north coast) to Exeter, and the second from Taunton along the south side of Exmoor to Barnstaple.

St Michael’s and All Angels churchwhich we see today dates in part from the early twelfth century – but it replaced one, which had been there earlier. There was also St Luke’s Chapel built in the twelfth or early thirteenth century.Also find here a history of the Methodist Chapel (built 1862).

In the area around Bampton, there is a wide variety of fishing available, from the swift flowing rivers to the lakes and reservoirs.

Fly fishing for salmon and trout is available all the year around in some lakes, and for the coarse fisherman, fishing for tench, roach, bream, perch, rudd, and carp is available in many areas.

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The nearest town is Tiverton with a wide variety of shops, a museum, castle, swimming pool, and a cinema. The town is well known for its Pannier Market which is open 6 days a week: a flea market on Mondays, a general market on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and a W.I. market on Wednesdays. Auctions are held on Thursdays, with viewing the day before. Every third Wednesday in the month there is a Farmers’ Market, 9am to 2pm.