From 1238 an annual fair held over fifteen days, originally commencing on 25th July (the feast day of St James) it was changed to the first fortnight in September in 1738.
Latimer’s Annals of Bristol gives an idea of the huge variety of goods the attending merchants brought: ‘Blankets and woollens from Yorkshire, silks from Macclesfield, linens from Belfast and Lancashire, carpets from Kidderminster, cutlery from Sheffield, hardware from Walsall and Wolverhampton, china and earthenware from Staffordshire and other counties, cotton stockings from Tewkesbury, lace from Buckinghamshire and Devon, trinkets from Birmingham and London, ribbons from Coventry, buck and hog skins for breeches, hats and caps, millinery, haberdashery, female ornaments, sweetmeats and multitudinous toys from various quarters arrived in heavily laden wagons and were joined by equally large contributions from the chief industries of the district.’
‘To these again were added nearly all the travelling exhibitions and entertainments then in the country - menageries, circuses, theatres, puppet shows, waxworks, flying coaches, rope-dancers, acrobats, conjurors, pig-faced ladies, living skeletons, and mummers of all sort who attracted patrons
As Latimer notes, the pleasure section of the fair grew considerably at the end of the eighteenth century. Particularly popular was the side show entertainment, including the Corsican Fairy, the Learned Pig, the Indian Spotted Youth and the Irish Giant. The giant’s name was Patrick Cotter. He was born in Ireland in 1760 and when he was 18 a travelling showman offered him what was then a lot of money to come to England to be exhibited at fairs. From the tip of his middle finger to where his palm met his wrist was 30 cms long and his shoes were 43 cms long. He was believed to be 2 and a half metres tall and he weighed 159 kg (25 stone). The first showman passed him on to another one without even asking and when Patrick protested the showman had him put in prison claiming that he owed him money.
He was subsequently rescued from prison by a Bristol man and encouraged to run his own career. He changed his name to Patrick O’Brien and toured the country. He made enough money to retire at the age of 44 and he settled in Hotwells but died shortly after.
Some of his belongings are displayed in the Blaise Castle Museum.
Robert Southey, who attended the fair, notes in his Commonplace Book: ‘At Bristol I saw a shaved monkey shown for a fairy; and a shaved bear, in a check waistcoat and trowsers, sitting in a great chair as an Ethiopian savage. This was the most cruel fraud I ever saw. The unnatural position of the beast, and the damnable brutality of the woman-keeper who sat upon his knee, put her arm round his neck, called him husband and sweet-heart, and kissed him, made it the most disgusting spectacle I ever witnessed. Cottle was with me.’
The Bristol Gazette, of 11th September, 1817, is equally scathing: ‘All persons who wish to discourage Vice and Profligacy are requested to AVOID THE FAIR, and to prevent those under their influence from approaching the scenes which stamp disgrace on our city, and allure multitudes to their present and eternal ruin’.
At a meeting of the Council on the 16th July, 1838, the fair annually held in St. James's Churchyard in the month of September, as well as the March fair held in Temple Street, was abolished; and fairs for the sale of live stock exclusively were ordered to be held in the cattle market on the two first days of March and September.
