Widecombe Fair 2019
We were so pleased to be part of the fair this year. It was an amazing day. The weather was beautiful and we loved meeting everyone who came by our PACMAT stand.
Widecombe Fair takes place on the second Tuesday of September, every year, in the village of Widecombe, Dartmoor.
It is the subject of a folk song featuring Uncle Tom Cobley and his friends.
The fair first recorded in 1850, when it was described as ‘a cattle fair’. It soon became a place to show and sell other livestock, particularly locally-bred sheep and Dartmoor ponies, and by the 1920s it had also become a sports day for local schoolchildren. In 1933, stalls were introduced, selling rural arts and crafts.
Over the years the fair has grown in size and reputation. Today, along with the livestock, there are many other attractions. A dog show, displays of local produce, vintage farm machinery, the Widecombe Singers, rural arts and crafts, bale tossing and a now traditional appearance by Uncle Tom Cobley himself, (featuring a local resident in fancy dress, riding a grey mare).
