THE HOLFORD FAMILY'S SHEEP FAIR DAYS

Original story line published in Along The Furlong in September 1997

Text copyright Valerie Martin 1999

Around the eighteenth century I have discovered that the onus of managing the Findon Sheep Fairs fell on the shoulders of consecutive members of the local Holford family. In all, three generations of Holford held the position of Findon Parish Clerk up to the year 1798.

I understand that George Holford was also a carpenter as well as Parish Clerk and may have been born in Horsted Keynes c.1720 and was the son of John Holford. 

George had three wives.    He married Elizabeth Mills on 29th July 1743.   She died in 1770 having given him eight children.  

On 14th October of the same year he married Mary Baker.   She died seven years later in 1777 and left him with one child. 

Two years later he married Mary Mitchel on 8th July 1779.

I believe that around the year 1785 an area of ground on Nepcote Green was assigned to George for constructing a shed to house the wattles required for the annual Sheep Fair. (The Lamb Fair held earlier in the year was not instituted until around 1835). This store was originally, no doubt, a wooden shanty affair. He held it by copyhold for a mere 1d. payment per annum from at least the date 1785. By the year 1790, George was the tenant of a copyhold cottage close to Nepcote Green. By this era there were tremendous numbers of sheep speckled on the Downs drifting like clouds. There became a pressing need to market them on an organised scale.

George had a son born in 1755, known as George Holford Junior.  He had two wives.  He married Elizabeth Harland on 24th May 1776.  She died in 1789 but not before giving him eight children.

William Richardson became Lord of the Manor of Findon in 1787 and George Junior was employed as carpenter for the Squire. George Junior was the obvious man to be selected to manage a fair and in 1792 Squire William Richardson agreed with him that he might conduct a Sheep Fair on the Green — which at this time was called "the Recreation Ground". A small plot of this land was granted to George Junior and measured 50 ft. x 16 ft. (The dimensions of the Wattle House on the Green). This agreement was made in Court by Squire Richardson and runs thus:

1792 was a busy year for Goerge.  It wa also in that year that he married for a second time.  This was on 21st May 1792 and his new wife was Sarah Pannet and she gave him a further six children.

I understand that as far as the Sheep Fair was concerned, it was arranged that a rent would be paid to the Squire as Lord of the Manor for booths pitched and a toll on every sheep penned. The Great Findon Sheep Fair was officially born on 14th September 1890 and established as a market for flock masters. The Fair was originally for the sale of Southdown stock and agreed to be held annually on the 14th September, regardless of the day of the week. It can be deduced that flocks were being driven to, and sold on, Nepcote Green for many years prior to this date to make it necessary to provide covered wattle accommodation.

George Junior not only fashioned the wattles for penning the animals, his job was to pitch the Fair in readiness for the day, and provide and repair the wattles and other accoutrements. He had to erect the pens, apportion them to various vendors as they arrived on the Green, and collect his tolls from the flock owners. The amusement proprietors had the right to provide entertainment on the south-west corner of the Green, and George collected tolls from them as well. At the conclusion of the proceedings, he had to tidy everything away again and settle up with the Squire. He was indeed a busy man — even if he had helpers, and must have been rushed off his feet.

In 1798 his father, George Holford Senior, resigned from being Parish Clerk after forty years. He stood down in favour of George Junior, who by the following year was receiving a salary of £4. for the duties.