Stratford District Council says it will not reveal how much Mop Fair pays to take over town as it is "commercially sensitive"
AS the Mop Fair returns to Stratford town centre once again on Tuesday and Wednesday (11th and 12th October) there will undoubtedly also be the return of questions over some aspects of it.
This week, Stratford District Council said there were no plans to review its presence in the town.
A spokesperson confirmed: “The Mop Fair remains incredibly popular with a large increase in footfall into the town.”
However when asked how much the fair organiser, Bob Wilson’s Funfairs, paid to hold the mop – which many businesses complain is detrimental to them – they declined, saying they are “unable to provide the figures as this is commercially sensitive information”.
The traditional mop is followed a week later with the runaway mop on Friday and Saturday, 21st and 22nd October.
The mop tradition stretches back centuries to when the original charter to hold the event was granted by Edward VI on 28th June 1544.
During the fair agricultural workers would descend on the town at the end of the season carrying an item signifying their trade.
Employers would move amongst the crowd and hire workers at the event.
Though they were previously common events in England, most mop fairs have died out over the years, but Stratford’s shows no signs of disappearing.
Interestingly, in 2003 the council hired a lawyer to look at the legalities of making any changes to the mop.
The lawyer retained reviewed all relevant material including the original Charter granted by Edward VI on 28th June 1553; the Charter granted by James I on 23rd July 1611; and the Charter from Charles II dated 31st August 1676.
The latter provides that mops or fairs should be held “within and through all places Streets, Lanes, Alleys and Fields in the said Borough (Stratford-upon-Avon)”.
He also identified that if the council wished to move the Mop from the current historical location, it could only do so with the approval of the public.
In December 2004, the council consulted the public, with 813 local residents responding to a postal survey.
The results back then were:
- 68 per cent thought it should remain in the town centre
- 81 per cent agreed that the Mop Fair was part of Stratford Heritage, but, conversely, 28 per cent expressed the opinion that the Mop Fair has no place on the streets of Stratford
- 66 per cent of road users said they did not mind being diverted onto an alternative route due to mop congestion
The council said: “The consultation will be repeated at some point in the future to see if there is any difference in public opinion before any future agreement is considered by the council.”
